Young single people have to choose between bread and butter, while politicians wonder why more young people don’t have children. Living alone costs money. Hilde Nagell encourages single rebellion in her chronicle, while Andreas Farberg replies that couples with children must come first. Of course, priority must be given to families with children. But shouldn’t we who haven’t met anyone to share a loan with also be able to live reasonably good lives? It is not easy to leave a relationship in a culture that assumes couple economics. I have done it myself, thanks to parents who covered the moving van. The rebellious thoughts of many young singles are not unfounded. “Study or burn,” my generation was told. We who trained at the behest of the state. For many millennials, a generational rebellion is simmering overtime. We are the generation born between 1981 and 1996, i.e. aged 27–43. Today’s fertile and graduates. We were led to believe that if we sacrificed childhood for school, got into university, got a decent education and landed a steady job, everything would be fine. We would be able to establish ourselves with a financial security that defended the years of study below the poverty line. But not then. After six years at university, three degrees and four years of relevant work experience, I got a job as a natural science researcher in the state. Salary NOK 525,000. This resulted in a monthly payment of NOK 29,000. The expenses? Home loan with the best interest rate and longest repayment period on a 38 m² apartment a little outside Trondheim NOK 12,500. Shared costs, municipal taxes and electricity NOK 5,500. Bus card NOK 900. Trade union NOK 500. Products for stress-triggered chronic illness NOK 2,500. Student loan, with year abroad, but also deletion of science subjects NOK 3600. Then NOK 3000 remains for food and drink, insurance, dentist, pension savings, clothes, health and household. I expect neither a hairdresser nor a holiday. But what does it do to young single people not to be able to travel to visit people or go out with them to meet, let alone date? This is the case for far too many in the generation that entered working life during one of history’s fiercest financial crises. Secondly, the pandemic hit just as the society was supposed to welcome the youngest of the generation. Some will say that we are not meant to be able to establish ourselves in the first years after our studies. No, well. But that’s when we can bear children, something that is then pushed into h. that we have to. You must not live in the city. No, well. If we have a higher education, it is therefore too expensive to live where there is a relevant job. You must not study. No, well. Nevertheless, the air is heavy in the reading rooms after everyone who thought they had to. You must not work in the state. No, well. Should Norway be run on charity, or should the nation be shut down? Procreation politicians like Solberg, Vedum and Toppe need us to be a nation together. Here we stand, generation super educated. Always read. Broke and frustrated. A bank just laughed when I asked for a mortgage. Even with union interest, zero notices and equity after cohabitation and home sale. Too low wages and large student loans, they said. It doesn’t make living alone any easier. During the spring academic strike, one of the main demands was that higher education must pay off. I myself started a permanent job at the age of 24, and I don’t think the pension prospects look very bright. In the new year I looked for extra work. Nothing came of it, because soon I was on sick leave with burnout. Thus, the holiday money, the buffer that makes the hamster wheel go round, evaporates. Ah, young people complaining about what a rotten world they are inheriting. No, I’m grateful. The choices were mine, the privileges countless and a job and an apartment are my dream now. But I refuse to be fooled into thinking that the financial circumstances are entirely self-inflicted. Because there are many of us who are in the same situation. And I refuse to give birth to children I cannot feed. Solutions? Dare to take on the debate around higher education, personal finances and family life. Curb the master’s degree mission towards young people who neither want nor can afford to study. Use the resources on vocational subjects and employers who offer on-the-job training. Labor Minister Tonje Brenna said a few days ago that “it is an important investment that more people take higher education”. In that case, freeze the interest on the student loan. Let the repayment rate reflect the salary, as in the UK. Expand the measure zone for erasing student debt in the districts, which currently only applies to a small part of Northern Norway. Limit the solutions to one degree debt to signal that one degree should hold for a viable salary. And the housing market? Housing speculation is a place to start. Copywriter and economist Farberg should know that I “cut beer on the town” with pleasure. But the sense of scarcity that whispers that I will never be able to afford children if I wanted to is more painful. Especially when accompanied by someone wryly remarking how his children must provide for those who remain childless. We were gullible, us millennials. Generation burned out. We who put our souls into everything that never came to fruition. Powerless, we bought the castle in the air where society said we could live. But we didn’t have to “burn”. We rather burned out. It’s time for a riot! Published 11.08.2024, at 22.06
ttn-69
The Millennium Rebellion – Speech
