The tweet was from Jake Anbinder, a historian and Fellow at Cornell University according to his bio. Jake’s tweet stated: “The political nihilism of Gen Z is something that needs more unpacking.” To illustrate his point, he posted the following two screenshots.

Of course, this is not novel territory for twenty-somethings. The civil rights movements of the 60s and the anti-war efforts in the Vietnam era were largely led by young people. My main boss these days is Professor Mark Denbeaux, the longest-tenured Professor at my law school and someone who has a photo of him in his 20s at the March to Selma on his Wikipedia page. For generations, young people have been ready and willing to take action where they deem fit. Visit the National Center for Civil and Human Rights in Atlanta for great examples. Hell, even a dozen signers of the American Declaration of Independence were under 35.

So, I was confused as to why Jake thought that Gen Z specifically needed unpacking and decided to lay the generational grievances out for him on the famously unaggressive “X” dinner table below.

I wrote this post halfheartedly while sitting in my office with Professor Denbeaux. As someone who has experienced all of these as a conscious, free-thinking member of Gen Z, this was second nature to write.

The responses ranged from argumentative to comedic to agreeing. When someone facetiously replied with “hey do you know that Katniss Everdeen is a fictional character,” it forced me to re-examine my study of “Gen K,” a term that I first learned about in my research for my first Free Throws essay, “A generation that is anything but medium rare.”

In March 2016, Noreena Hertz wrote the following words about Gen Z (which she refers to as Gen K) in The Guardian:

“Like Katniss, they feel the world they inhabit is one of perpetual struggle - dystopian, unequal, and harsh.”

This is before Trump.

Before COVID.

Before TikTok.

It’s as if we were preordained to be this way.

Hertz’s article includes statistics that indicate an imminent decay of cultural, mental, and financial health for Gen Z. “When asked whether they think their lives are likely to be more of a struggle than those of their parents’, their answer is an unambiguous yes: 79% worry about getting a job while 72% worry about debt – and not only student loans.”

Flash forward to today. The American Survey Center released poll results last week on “Generation Z and the Transformation of American Adolescence.” This study noted that 60% of Gen Z adults “say they worry at least sometimes about having enough money to pay their bills.” Furthermore, “three-quarters (75 percent) of Gen Z women and about two-thirds (66 percent) of Gen Z men say they worry at least once in a while about whether they will be able to attain a meaningful job or career.”

If strives have been made in the economic and cultural arenas, as noted in the above screenshots shared in Jake’s tweet, why have these worries not meaningfully changed in over seven years?

The answer, of course, is complicated. But Gen Z’s collective feeling towards one element of day-to-day life sticks out to me: trust.

The graph below struck me the most out of all the American Survey Center’s published findings.

America today is seemingly experiencing a crisis of trust. Even if someone had an answer to these incredibly complex issues, the concept of who or what would execute a multipronged plan successfully is unclear.

Historically, the federal government has provided what I will coin a “trust insurance” policy to the American people. Even if there were problems in day-to-day life, the concept existed that because you were an American, the social safety net of the American dream would catch your financial and societal struggles.

As noted above, this feeling was felt by young members of the Silent Generation and Baby Boomers. However, this notion has completely dissipated for Gen Z.

My purpose in responding to Jake’s tweet and writing this article today is simple. I want to show that, quite frankly, the reasons behind Gen Z’s lack of trust and the ongoing “vibecession” should not be a mystery.

(Vibecession is a term coined by economist Kyla Scanlon to describe a period when popular sentiment - i.e., vibes - is skewing negatively despite an economic environment showing signs of progress.)

If you’re not Gen Z and you are reading this, I would like to ask you the following questions:

What if you grew up in a time when your popularity could be measured on an app that everyone could see?

What if you got your high school or college experience cut off by a global event you could not remotely control?

What if traditional ladders to economic progress like higher education and owning a home became historically out of reach during your young adulthood?

Whether Gen Z’s perception of a lack of faith in the government or other public institutions is justified is a different question. Perhaps one could argue that the federal government’s response to the COVID crisis has been enormously successful and that the liberal achievements of the Biden administration should outweigh all of the drawbacks of the Trump administration.

I will not argue for or against either of those. If either of those arguments is correct, though, the messaging to young people needs to improve.

It has already become clear that the next presidential election will follow the trend of being another “historic” and “unprecedented” moment in our lives. I personally feel as if there is a lack of media attention on the US election currently. With third-party candidates emerging and President Trump’s legal status in question, anything is possible. There is absolutely no doubt in my mind, though, that President Biden’s chances of re-election rely on the broad support from the Gen Z democratic base that carried him to victory in 2020.

The New York Times-Siena poll of 3,662 registered voters in six battleground states that was released last week had an insane result for Gen Z that should alarm all of us: the popular choice for President for those aged 18-29 is not Trump (29%), and not Biden (30%), but rather the independent Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. (34%).

This should scare the crap out of both leading parties. But once again, given what I said in my tweet, I am unsurprised.

Just like Katniss, “Gen K” is not afraid to eat the proverbial poison berry in the hope that the change they seek will ensue. But we can only hope that the change that comes is change for the better instead of blind retribution.

As Katniss said in the first Hunger Games novel: “You don’t forget the face of your last hope.”

Gen Z, like Katniss, yearns desperately to hope for something. But before hope is earned, so must trust.

A new Hunger Games movie is coming out this week, and I promise that this did not influence the timing of this article. But I do look forward to reading the book and watching the movie.

About two weeks ago, President Biden announced the creation of the American Climate Corps. We’ll refer to this program as the “corps” in this essay. The corps seeks to “put more than 20,000 young people on career pathways in the growing fields of clean energy, conservation, and climate resilience.”

Green New Deal advocates like AOC have been advocating for the creation of this program for years. Beyond climate advocates’ wanting to do anything about the consistent breaking of the “hottest month in recorded history” record every summer, the impetus for this specific program is actually rooted in history as much as it is in statistics. The new corps had a New Deal-era predecessor implemented by FDR: the Civilian Conservation Corps.

According to the National Parks Service website, the CCC employed about three million men nationwide over its nine years of existence. What is interesting about the CCC, though, is that these three million men were not scientists or researchers: they were builders. Using materials native to where they were working, they built “roads, trails, culverts, and structures.”

Now, the connection between building and the Green New Deal policies from the eras of FDR to today may seem to be a difficult one to formulate. Sustainable infrastructure growth is absolutely necessary to ensure that the valves of the economy and the atmosphere do not literally crumble apart. But a more important angle as to why this connection is vital is how these programs can benefit the mental health and well-being of young people, which may manifest a transformation into a more civil and trusting society as a whole.

In this way, the climate corps is not only a response to the urgent threat of climate change but also a recognition of the needs and aspirations of Gen Z. As discussed last week, this generation has grown up with an expectation for institutional failure (see the 2008 financial crisis, withdrawal from Afghanistan, inability to contain COVID deaths). As a result, young people have developed a deep distrust in government. Where this manifests itself beyond politics, though is in reading that younger adults have lower levels of personal trust than other Americans. This 2019 Pew Research study indicated that “levels of personal trust tend to be linked with people’s broader views on institutions and civic life.”

This is where non-military national service programs can play a vital role. By providing young people with opportunities to serve their communities and their country, these programs can help Gen Z gain valuable social skills, practical experience that can be used in vocational careers, diverse social networks, and a broader sense of civic engagement. And can you imagine if work incentives within these programs could provide the government with a back-door opportunity to clear or lessen federal student loans, or provide this generation with the opportunity to have a piece of a federal pension plan? With the environment being Gen Z’s number one concern, the government has an absolutely golden opportunity here to utilize the new climate corps as an experimental lab for future programs.

There is a personal angle to my belief here. I witnessed the power of our generation’s ability to align its goals and hopes for the future with public sector contributions while serving as a Congressional Fellow on Capitol Hill this summer. As I wrote last week, I do NOT perceive Gen Z to be a passive or pessimistic generation. On the contrary, we are active, creative, diverse, and resilient. We are willing to take action on our own and collaborate with others who share our vision.

As a Fellow this summer, I was between a senior intern and a full-time staffer. So, I had the privilege of spending a ton of time with the undergraduate interns in our office. Professionally, I had not ever spent this much time with people ~5 years younger than me before. My colleagues were not only eager to learn about the legislative process and policy issues but also eager to contribute their ideas and perspectives.

Especially in the legal sphere, I’ve noticed that public service or employment in the public sector broadly is something that people would usually wait until the late stage of their career to do. People will join the public sector to “give back” at the end of their careers. But what if we could flip the script, and public service could be seen as a way to launch a career?

In an article released this past September, the New York Times Magazine noted that the percentage of young adults who said that a college degree is very important has dropped to 41% from 74% over the last ten years. Noting this trend, perhaps non-military national service can also contribute to the future landscape of higher education. Imagine that those participating in the new climate corps could be put on track for an accelerated degree in environmental science from a public university near their team’s project, for example. Or, if the corps member would prefer not to be on an academic path, the corps could provide them with industry-recognized credentials that could lead to a fruitful career. A career, hopefully, that includes union membership as well.

One would hope that a program that could have such a positive impact will not be corrupted by the forces that usually plague good governance. Rampant bureaucracy will prevent positive experiences for a generation that is used to speed, and you would hope that the building done by this program will be equitably distributed to the parts of the nation that truly need it the most.

Despite the risk of failure, I would argue that exploring a new era of non-military national service is worth the effort - especially given the current economic and cultural environment. If successful, the new climate corps could be replicated in other industries as well. After all, in the context of our business, civic, and personal relationships, it’s better to dance together.

I like writing about opportunities for change for the next generation because it gives me hope. In the future we’ll build on this series further by discussing apprenticeship.

Gen Z has a reputation. And not just one for propelling Taylor Swift to being the world’s top pop star. Now, I’m not seated at the right hand of the mother like Travis Kelce is, but I think I understand my generation pretty well - even as one of its elder statesmen.

Well-documented statistics show that we favor spending money on experiences over saving, the most important issue to us is climate change, and prioritize working for companies that prioritize diversity and inclusion. I stan all of this completely, and am glad that these viewpoints have begun to gain traction on the national stage.

What Gen Z does not have a reputation for, though, is being a generation of hardworkers. You see the headlines that call Gen Z entitled, unproductive, or difficult to work with.

Although Gen Z’s expectations for higher salary or quicker career growth may be seen as entitled to some, I would track this higher expectation for life to a collective trait that I have seen play out in my social and professional spheres: we are a generation of creative innovators.

The generational mantle for innovators usually goes to the Millenials. Mark Zuckerberg, for example, created an entire pipeline of people who thought their big idea could turn themselves from a college dropout to a millionaire overnight. I know, because I’m one of them.

So yes, the millennials created the frameworks that created the social media generation. But something tells me that this generation of true digital natives - Gen Z - is going to not only continue the acceleration of the innovation economy, but is going to do so in creative ways that those before us have not been able to. Despite the many flaws of the social media lanscape, the rails have been created. So, where am I taking you on this high-speed journey through the heartland of innovation?

My former home, the East Village of NYC. (Where else tbh.)

Last Saturday, a group of twenty-somethings came together to do something that represents the best of Gen Z creativity and what’s to come as our generation takes the reins of the internet, startup, and VC world: they created a luxury NYC steakhouse called Mehran’s Steak House out of thin air, opened for one night only, had their friends staff the restaurant, and successfully sold their experience for greater than $100 a plate in one sold out evening. One diner said it was “the best steak of their life.”

I’m not going to spend much time writing about what they did - Mehran himself and the New York Times have already done so in a manner that I cannot (and should not) replicate. But I will write about the implications of this, as it is a fun example of the rise of the Gen Z economy.

The Gen Z economy is bound to be chaotic, as it is set to be one that is dominated by trends, opulence, and time-bound exclusivity. The pop-up shop model has grown from a format used by thrift shops to quickly offload products in high-traffic areas to a way for West Village trendsetters to find their next favorite grocery trend. The “drop” model once utilized for exclusivity by streetwear titan Supreme is now being employed by fast-fashion retailers like Temu that aim to capitalize on those looking for various deals on new products. And I saw a line across the block in torrential rain last night full of twenty-somethings waiting to get into the John Wick pop-up bar in the Financial District.

There will be casualties, though. Those who don’t adapt the digital world to the real-world in an authentic and trustworthy way will not fly in this environment. Showfields, which aimed to be the department store of the future by featuring digitally-native brands in irl spaces and marketing itself as “the most interesting store in the world,” unfortunately just announced that it was closing its NYC store this week. Its Miami store was also closed earlier this year to “better align with its profitability and expansion goals.” I was an online retailer that enjoyed working with them, but I can see where they went wrong in their quest to be an all-in-one shop.

Gen Z will focus on temporality and exclusivity, and will want to purchase products from the businesses that align themselves with the next big thing. Gen Z entrepreneurs will develop businesses that align themselves towards the actions of their peers. Not every business will look like or be as successful as Mehran’s Steak House. But, be prepared for an evolving landscape where if you’re not on trend, you’re not dropping new experiences, or you’re not evolving your offerings, you will be left behind.

Short commercial attention spans can seem annoying, but I think they will have a wonderful effect on innovation. We will see a blistering pace of development around new fields like AI and Web3, and ripple effects will follow in venture capital financing trends. I would argue that knowing these business trends would also be useful for politicians seeking to connect with a younger audience.

We will see where life takes us. But absolute kudos to the Mehran’s Steak House team. I am excited for a future that includes the ingenuity of combining a desire for fun with an incredible discipline to pull something off that is difficult and time-consuming. If this doesn’t represent the best of what’s to come, I don’t know what will.

Thank you to those in the past for building the rails. But I think it will take our generation to finally prioritize high-speed alternatives. Ok, maybe not actual high-speed rail: but we can do something about it. After all, that’s what Katniss wired us to do.

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