A good friend of mine is a therapist. Most of his clients are young and dwell extensively on the lack of opportunity to achieving the American dream and therefore have a lack of incentive and motivation. The protestant ethic says work hard, save your money get ahead. But there is a hopelessness today. Using existing capitalistic models is definitely not working. It’s time to come up with new models. Getting organized and cooperating is not new at all. Now the youth have to build something that works for them. It starts with getting organized, sharing, perhaps downsizing, and discipline. But discipline that happens with the kind of others. Best noticed and that work best in Denmark there are a lot of get waves to ahead with others. Thats where the advantage is. The main advantage in Denmark is a philosopher that emphasizes success through cooperation. He’s famous for educating farmers on how not to go it alone. If you want to buy grain for the same amount as folks with 100 cows, organizing farmers until they add up to 100 cows. While Americans are still stuck at, “I have to do everything myself to get ahead.” An old model.
The Danish model for a long time is, “I better do it with others to get ahead.” As Jeff puts it, these Gen Z and Millennials are lacking hope, which leads to complacency and a lack of motivation. The solution has to lay with sharing resources. They need a framework that provides them with a vision, and a structure like putting an affordable cohousing together.
This is not the time for “pull yourself up by the bootstraps.” This is the time for, “if we’re going to get something done, let’s meet this Saturday afternoon–all ten of us at 4pm. Let’s make this happen together.