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“Our kids are the most important thing in our lives, and their well-being and prosperity is profound. If you acknowledge that they're doing more poorly than previous generations. If you believe there’s a chance that the illusion of complexity has done nothing but provide cloud cover for the unbelievable transfer of good will, of well-being and of prosperity from young to old. And if you believe we can actually fix these problems and we have the resources, then I augur the question:
Do we love our children?”
-Scott Galloway
Scott Galloway is a Professor of Marketing at the NYU Stern School of Business and his recent TEDtalk is a scathing take on how we as a country actually do not love our children. The link to his talk is here, and you will find it worthy of the 18 minutes he commands. If you don’t have the time right now, consider visiting his personal website (link here) for the blog post, it gives the reader a nice breakdown of the main points along with the relevant graphics.
I have seen Professor Galloway in other videos and interviews, but never alone on a stage delivering a talk like this one, and I absolutely loved it. He makes some very compelling arguments that portrays us as a nation at war with its youth. He argues that we are witness to one of the largest transfers of wealth from the young to the old in all of history. He explains that this transfer is occurring in occult and insidious ways. For example, he draws attention to how different the housing market is today versus 30 or 40 years ago, and how a college tuition has far outpaced the rate of inflation year over year for almost 20 years. He warns that social media, in all its forms, is uniquely designed to destabilize our youth, and lead to more polarization and mental health issues. He argues that the body positivity movement is just merely fuel for the obesity epidemic, that then feeds diabetes industrial complex (pun intended.) This is a particularly hot take, and one that I share. I wrote about how Ozempic will be a public health failure in a post a few weeks ago, see link below:
I agree with many of his points, disagree with some, and question the omission of others. For example, I consider the new prevalence of marijuana amongst our youth to be incredibly problematic to their development. I also think the growing number of non-nuclear families, especially amongst the lower socioeconomic groups, is not providing the most stable and supportive environment for our kids to grow up in. Some of his proposed interventions come a little too close to being a Marxist playbook for my comfort, but I see where he is coming from.
He delivers his points with stoic poise as the topics are all very heavy, but he interjects with relevant and appropriate humor. The talk overall is very enjoyable to listen to, and it stands for me as an example on how to do deliver a compelling key note talk. Watching it, I did not realize 18 minutes had passed.
In his final slide he shows us a picture of him and his daughter at a soccer game, and he has a very clear emotional moment. He reminds us that no matter what happens in your work life or your social life, the moment something goes wrong with your child, it becomes your whole world.
I do not know what the world will look like as Luca grows up. But what I do know is that I want him to have the opportunities that I had growing up. In fact, I would like him to have even more opportunities than I did. It would break my heart if he was doing worse in his 30s than I am now, which is what Professor Galloway warns us we are headed towards. I personally am not as pessimistic as he is about our youth overall. I do think the children of today face unique challenges, but I also think they are afforded unique opportunities. I plan on doing my part for my son and future children, and I will certainly join any efforts to help maintain opportunities for all of our children.