Martain, thank you for the response. I can see that you took some time to type it out and think about it. Thank you also for offering differing points, some I would like to continue dialog on them because the subjects actually interest me.

<quote>It's dangerous to profile people based on what they do for a living and this can often lead you in the wrong direction. Even before "the great recession".</quote>

I don’t disagree with that statement except for “the great recession” statement. My statements on why would be better placed in a different part of my response though.


<quote>Does the fact that I tell you I am an "actuary" change they way you talk to me?</quote>

After reading what an “actuary” does for a living, potentially yes. Not because of any types of profiling previously discussed, which I just want to throw it out there, everybody profiles. Now I will not put the details I have read up here, if someone else wants to read what an “actuary” then fine, but yes I firmly believe there would be certain characteristics of your job, present in your life outside of work.

<quote>In some respects you can divide people by the way xinhuan says as people with common interests/goals/motivation tend to aggregate in the same kinds of jobs. On the other hand it's not as strict as you might believe. The media and politicians play this a lot in order to score point/sell papers/divert attention away from real issues</quote>

I agree with people with common interests/goals/motivation do tend to aggregate in the same kinds of jobs. One of the things I love about my job is that it is not age restrictive. As I am entering into management, I am in a training program that will take 6-9 months for me to complete. One of the courses I had to take was managing multigenerational workforces. On the following PDF: http://www.lhh.com/...enerational-workforce.pdf
On page 3 there is a graph showing the workforce broken down by age group and the name for that generation. The place I work has a representative from each category, and at near equal proportions than the national average. On page 8 is the Gen Xer profile and page 9 is Gen Y. We can see that Gen X and Y have very different work characteristics. I will expand upon this more later.


<quote>I socialize (irl) with people ranging from construction worker and airplane pilot all the way up to (income wise): oncologist and comptroller (the financial kind). If you put them all in a room and mix them together you generally wouldn't be able to tell because they are bound together by other common interests (such as culture, travel and gaming and beer).</quote>


In my initial post I was trying to imply in a round about way that I had in fact come to the conclusion that profiling a person based on their career choice was silly for me based on a conversation with an Earther earlier that day. The whole process of starting to think about it because he gave me the name of a profession I had no idea about. I apologize for not making it more explicit that yea, I kinda got that.

<quote>"Like me, most of you were teenagers growing up in a time of record low unemployment. It shaped how we perceived people and our world."
When I was a teenager it was the early 90s. That was hardly the case. Especially not where I was living.</quote>

According to the Buearu Labor of Statistics for New York State, where I grew up, in the early 90’s when you said you entered the workforce unemployment peaked in July of 1992 at 8.9% When I entered the workforce at the turn of the millennium, unemployment was at an all time low from December 2000 to April of 2001 where it maintained 4.3%. I actually started my first job in 1998 so I experienced a time where finding jobs was exceptionally easy.

http://data.bls.gov/pdq/SurveyOutputServlet


<quote>Regarding your final point about high youth unemployment and underemployment I'm going to sound mean about it but I'll be very blunt about this: That generation tends not vote and prefers to protest on the street. No one is power is going to represent their interests. When they finally enter the workplace they will be at a disadvantage because of the large supply of them. </quote>

Silent generation employees were saying the same things about Gen Xers in the 70’s, as what you are saying to a demographic group more accurately defined as millennials now.

<quote>Will it change workplace culture? No more so than it's already been changed. With the loss of steady jobs in the 1980s along with the loss of defined benefit pension plans there is no company loyalty anymore. We trade employers like they trade employees. </quote>

You don’t think a generation that has grown up with high unemployment that are defined as a generation to “Jump from job to job, are unwilling to conform to organizational demands that do not suit them, and leave jobs that bore them and are not “fun” has any effect on the culture of the workplace. You said yourself there are no steady jobs and a loss of defined benefit pension plans. Do you think a generation that views nothing is permanent has nothing to do with it? GenXers are the primary type of generation in managerial roles. Gen X ers are in positions that make those kinds of company changes. Of course business will be run that way now, look who is running them. I promise you when Gen Y has a greater percentage of managerial roles nationwide, business will be different. When mellenials take it over, again it will be different. The economy for the recorded history has always run cyclically. What if the economic cycle, creates workers with certain “perceptions” about work as a general rule of thumb. This is a general template for how that person will feel about the work environment and prospects of success. As the economy changes, you have generations defined by different perceptions. Now, as those generations come into, and fade from being “the ones that control corporate America” and the decisions they make on how to run business and invest money, could that in effect be the cause of the cyclical nature of the economy?
<quote>Also think about this: there is no plan to do anything to address the issues facing that generation and they are generally ignored. What's worse is government economic policy is geared towards supporting boomers (since they vote)....</quote>
I think that is true because never in the history of the United States has there been so many generations in the workplace. As a nation preparing the next generation of workforce has never been a priority.

<quote>To top that off, we've been in a low interest rate environment since Clinton and this eventually will ruin us.. maybe not in 1929 apocalypse style, but slowly over time.</quote>
I know nothing about interest rates and how they effect….well anything other than my checkbook and have nothing intelligent to contribute to it.