The Changing American Dream: Generations and Values

I’ve always been fascinated by the difference in generations. Generations at Work held so true to me that I recommended it to many friends.  This blog article talks about how the American Dream varies over the generations.  According to the article, Generation X and Generation Y value time, family and personal development way above money.  It rang really true to me! 

The article is about how those changes in values are changing the work place.  People are getting new jobs every two years, dropping lucrative careers to spend time with the family and much less willing to work 60 hour work weeks.  All of this is helping family and personal development:

We are
spending more time with our kids, and we are keeping our marriages
together more than twice as effectively
as our parents did. And Generation Y is doing better than their
parents, too: They refuse to waste their time on meaningless entry
level work because they value their time and their ability to grow more
than that.

Generation X values family more than money (and distrusts large corporations to take care of them) – Generation Y has taken it one step further and they are developing themselves.  Building a personal brand.  Every Generation Y’er I’ve ever interviewed has impressed me to
no end about all the things they’ve done – on their own.   And the rest of us are learning from them – just check out all those blogs!

One Reply to “The Changing American Dream: Generations and Values”

  1. I think the american dream changes per person per generation. Each individual is different, even though they are tied to a generation.

Comments are closed.