Episode 112: Our Woke Future with Mark Bauerlein

Announcer:
This is The WealthAbility® Show with Tom Wheelwright. Way more money, way less taxes.

Tom Wheelwright:

Welcome to the WealthAbility Show, where we're always discovering how to make way more money and pay way less taxes. This is Tom Wheelwright, your host, founder, and CEO of WealthAbility. So here's the question I've been wondering for the last couple of years. How have we gone from capitalism to socialism and how is it that the capitalist Baby Boomers have raised the socialist Millennials and why? Why do we have this idea of, I need reparations, I'm a victim? What's going on there? So we have a very special guest Mark Bauerlein, wrote his first book on the subject in 2008, if I remember right. And his follow up book, and don't be offended by this, by the title, it's a great title. I love the title because it makes creates the conversation, which the title is The Dumbest Generation Grows Up: From Stupified Youth to Dangerous Adults.

                I do want to talk a little bit about that too, because actually, my business partner's Millennial, and she's amazing. So I'm sure you don't mean to throw everybody under the bus, but I do want to talk about this whole idea, particularly from how do we go from capitalism to socialism in a single generation, basically? Which is a really fascinating topic to me as a tax and financial person. So Mark, welcome to the show. If you would, just give us a little bit about your background. How'd you come to … I mean, you're an English professor. How do you come to this topic?

Mark Bauerlein:

Well, I'm glad to join you. Thank you for having me to talk about the book. I was an English professor at Emory University for 30 years. I just retired a couple of years ago, and I also work as an editor at First Things Magazine, but being at a school like Emory University, which is pretty competitive, it's a wealthy, strong research institution, you see kids changing over time. And what I saw in Emory students, and also a lot of other students, I would team teach at other places, but from year say 2000 to 2008, the youth really, really changed. They had become digital kids. By 2010, the iPhones were out. We had Facebook had been out for four or five years. Twitter had come along. Soon, they'd be texting 4000 text messages per month. They were really tied into these digital devices and all the social media and the new games that came along. And it really changed them.

                This was a remarkable advent for a teenager because they were the early adopters. They were the digital natives. hen we talk about the creation of a socialistic outlook among the Millennials today, who are now 30, 35 years old, we really have to look back at what happened to them when they were 15 and 14. Think about what they could do with their world, with these tools. I mean, the world that they lived in, that they experienced. They could go in their bedrooms and spend six hours a night in there with all the screens on. They have the phone, they've got the laptop, they might have the video game, the PS3, all those things that would come along in time and they could have the music playing. They might have the TV on. And what they could do was fashion that little universe inside their bedrooms exactly according to their wishes, their desires.

                If they heard someone on their Facebook network say something they didn't like, like, “I prefer John McCain to Barack Obama this year,” well, I don't like that. I'm just going to unfriend you. You're out. They could remove things from their universe that bothered them. They never had to face a contrary idea. They didn't have to argue with anyone. They didn't have to study things that didn't interest them. No, they could produce what you'd call the daily me. That's what it was called back then. They could again make this artificial universe that was all affirming, that was all supportive, and they had the power to do it themselves. Amazing for them, but it gave them this false expectation about the world. This is the way the world ought to be. And if the world isn't this way, someone needs to fix it. That's where this socialistic hand holding, taking care of you, soft landings, and it went along with the Boomer participation trophies, helicopter parenting-

Tom Wheelwright:

I was going to say, you start out your book by saying, “What have we done to them?” I mean, these are our children. My kids are Millennials. My stepkids are Millennials. Frankly, most of my employees are Millennials, my business partner is a Millennial. And you go, “Well, wait a minute. We're the ones who gave everybody a trophy. They didn't do that.”

Mark Bauerlein:

That's right.

Tom Wheelwright:

We did that. So somewhere along the line, we basically told them that you're a victim. We basically gave them this idea. So, what happened there?

Mark Bauerlein:

Everyone deserves to be happy. Everyone deserves prosperity. Everyone should be able to live in the world and be exactly what he or she wants to be. That was the lesson the parents passed along to the kids, and the teachers passed along to the kids as well. They really fashioned the past as really a bad time. There was discrimination and there was racism and America had done some bad things, but we're going to fix it now. We are the greatest generation in history. We are the most tolerant, the most optimistic. They said they were the most entrepreneurial. They were the most ambitious. They went to college in record numbers. They elected our first African-American president, so they were quite full of themselves.

                And the mentors and the parents, including parents and teachers, who should have said, “Whoa, whoa, whoa, slow down. Let's get a little reality check here. Let's understand, you're never going to get full equity. You're always going to have some people who have more than others. Some people are going to be stronger, healthier, better athletes, more handsome, beautiful than others. You're never going to create your socialist utopia where all are equal.” But they were … No one told them that. And they had these tools that gave them the opportunity to voice that demand. They could always find community. They could always produce their own happiness with these digital tools. Of course, that means I don't have to worry about really getting up and going to work 40 hours a week. I don't have to pay taxes. I don't have to deal with landlords or rent or mortgages. All those reality things that hit them when they're in their 20s and now in their 30s, they just don't understand why those things are hard. Why those things are troublesome.

                This is actually, I am a victim. What do I have to be grateful for? Why should I be grateful when I have to work so darn hard at a job that really isn't about me? This is the narcissism that that screen produced, along with Boomer narcissism, the me generation that then has kids. Remember My Space. YouTube's motto was up in the upper left hand corner, “Broadcast yourself.” Go look at how many millennials have as their phone wallpaper, whatever, a picture of themselves. This is what we conditioned them to be, and now we've got them out there. They're marching. They go into these ridiculous utopian schemes, like Black Lives Matter and racial justice and perfect happiness for all. They march, but they have no idea what socialism really means. They don't know that socialism means government controls production. They don't know about the distribution. Excuse me. They don't know what Medicare for all would cost. They don't even know what they're talking about. What does socialism mean to them? Well, it means everyone is comfortable.

Tom Wheelwright:

It sounds to me, Mark, wait a minute, they're are children. So, we're the ones who are responsible for teaching that. So if they don't know that, we didn't teach it. I mean, let's just put it right there. Let's put it out that if there's some lack of understanding, it's because we didn't share that understanding with them. But here's the real question I've got. So, capitalism has produced the biggest boom in the history of the world over the last 40 years. This wasn't socialism that produced this boom, this was capitalism. It's raised more people out of poverty than ever in the history of the world. And yet what we have is we actually have people turning against that which created the comforts by which they can complain and ask for socialism.

                So, why? Why do people go from … My father was part of the greatest generation. He was a Naval officer in World War II. He started the business. I mean, basically what you had is greatest generation started the business, Baby Boomers built the business, and now the Millennials are the third generation of that business, and that's pretty much what happened. So when I was growing up, I mean, we were okay, but we didn't have anywhere near what my kids had growing up. So my question is, how do you get from my parents were so grateful. They'd grown up in the depression, they were so grateful for every single thing they had. They were grateful for every single time that they could actually go to the grocery store. They were grateful for the fact that they could actually own their own car. They were so grateful for …

                How do we go from that gratitude to basically this entitlement that I'm seeing? When I see this … I was in your neck of the woods not too long ago and I see a billboard, “Tax the rich.” I'm going, “Okay. So who made those people rich?” Well, that was you who made Jeff Bezos rich. When you order on Amazon, that's how he gets rich. He's doing something that actually gives you ease of ordering. He gives you access. He gives you inexpensive products. All of that comes because of what Jeff Bezos contributed to society, which I'm a big fan, just because I'm going, what would we have done during the pandemic without Amazon? It would've been a much different animal, that pandemic. So, how do you explain all that? How do you go from that base of gratitude that my parents felt and they instilled in me, to this base of entitlement, which is socialism?

Mark Bauerlein:

Well, you're right to bring up the ignorance factor, because for all those Millennials who supported Bernie in 2016, their conception of a rich person is the fat banker on the Monopoly board game, so holding up bags of money, big gut, smiling, a top hat. That's what they see as rich people. Not realizing rich people work like crazy. They work 80, 90 hours a week. They never stop. They're workaholics. That many of them are maniacs about working.

Tom Wheelwright:

What'd we hear? Elon Musk slept on the factory floor for, he said what, two or three years.

Mark Bauerlein:

They devote their lives to that kind of success, and very few people are capable of that kind of willfulness. They just don't know about that. They don't know when they talk about revolution, they don't know about how'd the French Revolution turn out? A blood bath. How'd the Russian Revolution turn out? Blood bath. Chinese Revolution, Cambodian Revolution. The American revolution is pretty dog gone unique in human history where you got a big change and it didn't produce constant warfare once they won. These were revolutionaries who went after their own people in France, Russia, China. Have you guys taken a look at George Orwell's writings? Do you know what happened under Stalin here? Oh, well that's not socialism. It's just never been tried. Well, look, if it's never been tried, then it probably can't be tried in this pure idealized vision that you have of things.

                The Boomers wouldn't tell them that. The Boomers told them, “Follow your passion.” Yes, change the world. Jordan Peterson tells them, “Clean your room first. Then you can go out and change the world.” But the Boomers didn't want to tell them why. Remember, they grew up at a time when the youth movement, the '60s and into the '70s, the youth movement was the source of great change, of idealism, of freedom, of liberation. And the Boomers, remember the motto? Don't trust anyone over 30. Now the Boomers then grew up and they don't want to play the role of that stern elder. They don't want to be like the fathers and grandfathers of yore who told them, “Do your homework. Go to your room.” They wanted to be hip and cool.

                I had colleagues, 55 years old. Suddenly in one September, they show up to class. They're sporting a ponytail and an earring to show they're really down with the kids. This is what they didn't … The Boomers didn't want to get old, the me generation, the '70s narcissism. Party like it's 1999. Don't think about the future. Don't think about this younger generation that you have to mentor. They're going to grow up. They're going to inherit the world. You've got to give them an idea that the world is a great place that has been created for you. You live in the shadow of heroism that has produced freedom, sacrifice that has produced the good, beauty, great art, great civilization. Do you know how lucky you are? Do you know what it's like to live in a world without anesthesia? You know what it's like to go to the dentist in 1850? Don't you know how fortunate you are? You have so many things. You can get on the phone and hit a few buttons, and someone's going to deliver food to your door in 20 minutes. You've got so much to be thankful for.

Tom Wheelwright:

Hey, if you like financial education the way I do, you're going to love Buck Joffrey's podcast. Buck's a friend of mine. He's a client of mine. He's a former board certified surgeon and he's turned into a real estate professional. He has this podcast that is geared towards high paid professionals. That's who he's geared towards. So if you're a high paid professional and you're going, “Look, I'd like to do something different with my money than what I'm doing. I'd like to get financially educated. I'd like to take control of my money and my life and my taxes,” I would love to recommend Buck Joffrey's podcast, which is called Wealth Formula Podcast with Buck Joffrey. I hope you join Buck on this adventure of a lifetime.

                I mentioned to you before we started my business partner, my staff, they're all Millennials and they're great. They're hard workers. They put in the hours. They care about their clients. They really are terrific. I mean, I love them to death. So, I don't experience that lack of gratitude. I don't experience that with the Millennials that I hang out with, and I hang out with a lot of them, but obviously there's also another whole section of that generation that is challenging from the standpoint that it appears that there is not this gratitude. So what do we do to cause that shift to help them understand that look, capitalism is what gave you that freedom to complain? That's what happened. It wasn't socialism that got you there. It was capitalism that got you there. It's that idea of gratitude, because I totally believe that if you're grateful, you can't be a victim by definition. Those two are incompatible. So, how do we change that dialogue? How do we change that message?

Mark Bauerlein:

Well, I think what we see when we look at the social science data is a lot of bitterness, unhappiness, depression, anxiety among Millennials. They're stressed out. That actually is a sign that this attitude of resentment isn't working. It's not making them happy. Gratitude is actually a good feeling. Gratitude feels better than ingratitude. Patriotism. It's nice to feel like my home is something I can be proud of. That's a better feeling than feeling I'm guilty with the country that I live in. These are not making them less miserable. So what we do is we reach out to them, the ones you know, the Millennials in your personal life. When you see the attitudes, don't berate them. I know I berate them in my books. But personally you show them life can be so much better than this. All right.

                You're going online and you want to cancel someone. You want to get someone fired. And Millennials lead the way in America on cancel culture. You've got to start building something positive. I don't want to resent the things that are wrong. It's no fun. I mean, Elizabeth Warren, what a scold this person is. Does she make anyone feel good, feel positive, feel optimistic? It's all negative. AOC, everything's a complaint. And again, this is not making the young happy. So what we do is how about giving them inspiring stories like Bernie Marcus, who got fired from his post as a board leader when he's age 50 and he's nowhere, he's nothing, and he turns around and has this idea for a big gigantic do it yourself warehouse store called Home Depot. He started that in his 50s. It's not too late to build something. It's not too late to turn and be entrepreneurial.

                That doesn't mean going marching in the streets because you hate Donald Trump. What a waste of your time that is. So we've got to give them better music, better stories, better books, better activities, but it's got to be on a personal level. You've got to reach them very immediately. That's what I suggest.

Tom Wheelwright:

So, let me ask you one last question. And that is, so you talk about the heroes, the business owners and the heroes. What is your view of the role of entrepreneurship in changing this attitude? Because I've never found an entrepreneur that was a victim, because if you're a victim, you wouldn't be an entrepreneur. Those are completely contrary to each other. Because I know a lot of our listeners are entrepreneurs, I'm a huge, huge, huge capitalist entrepreneur fan, how do you think entrepreneurs can can help with this? Because I do think that entrepreneurship is one of the answers.

Mark Bauerlein:

Well, just first, entrepreneurship takes a lot of energy. You can't be lazy and be an entrepreneur, and that means you've got to channel your energy. You can't waste energy online, on Twitter five hours a day and be an entrepreneur. You've got to turn your life powers-

Tom Wheelwright:

Outward.

Mark Bauerlein:

… toward forward, toward the future, toward invention, inventiveness, creativity, entrepreneurship, getting out there, talking to people, showing people, learning things, learning from them. And you know what? It's hard, but it's fun. This is the thing. We've got to tell people entrepreneurship means risk. It means failure. But it's fun. I'm doing something. I've got something. Here's what you do. You tell the guys, “Hey guys, you know what girls like? Girls like a guy who's got something going.” You may not even have a lot of money, but he's got something, he's working on something, he's got a vision. He's being independent. He's forward thinking. Here's your appeal. Guys, girls find that very attractive. So be an entrepreneur, you'll get more dates. So, that's one thing I can say. But there has to be entrepreneurship that can reach the unhappy Millennial. What kind of business opportunity does the miserable Millennial pose? That should be understood as we can do something about this, because that miserable Millennial is ready. He's ready to be plucked.

Tom Wheelwright:

He's got the pain.

Mark Bauerlein:

She has some pain. You relieve that pain, and you've made a good investment if you do this. Now I'm not an entrepreneur on that score, so I don't have the ideas for that, but it seems to me that things like the Black Lives Matter leaders, masterful entrepreneurs.

Tom Wheelwright:

Masterful.

Mark Bauerlein:

My goodness.

Tom Wheelwright:

Absolutely.

Mark Bauerlein:

They turned that movement … They took in $90 million last year. Patrisse Cullors, one of the founders of Black Lives, she's got about five homes now, multimillion dollar homes. Now that's entrepreneurship. Wow. So of course all the people following along in the marches, they're not entrepreneurs, but hey, you;ve got to hand it to those founders. Boy, did they strike a gold mine.

Tom Wheelwright:

That's fascinating. All right. So it's Mark Bauerlein. The book is The Dumbest Generation Grows Up: From Stupified Youth to Dangerous Adults. Mark, thanks so much for this great conversation. Any, like one last tip, something that somebody could do today to actually make a difference?

Mark Bauerlein:

I think that the areas of social media, TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, how about building a set of talks, lectures, interviews? I mean, look at Jordan Peterson really took off by doing a series of YouTube videos on the Bible. How about some entrepreneurs who want to do a video on how to be a happy Millennial? So, go into their media-

Tom Wheelwright:

I like it.

Mark Bauerlein:

… environment. Touch on their distress and turn it around. That's just an idea.

Tom Wheelwright:

I love it. I'm a big fan of learning how to sell and so forth. And one of the things is you have to find the pain, you have to sell the pain. So, there you go, and you have to do it where they are. You have to go where your customers are. I'm a big fan of a lot of Millennials. I'm just a huge fan. I see some Millennials. There's a Millennial that runs capitalism.com. I love him. And I love to see, because there are people like that in the Millennial group, and I'd love to see that, and I would like to encourage them as well. I'm a Boomer, so hey, Boomer, I get it. Frankly, you know what? No excuses here. No excuses here. If my kids feel like they're victims, I have nobody to blame but myself. Three fingers are always pointing back at me. So, I always appreciate that.

Mark Bauerlein:

They tell me, “Okay, Boomer,” and I say, “Get off my lawn.” So, let's have fun with that.

Tom Wheelwright:

All right. So just remember, anytime we can find a problem, solve a problem, serve more people, do good in the world, we're always going to make way more money, pay way less taxes. We'll see everybody next time. Thanks very much.