THE GENERATION THAT IS TIRED OF SURVIVING: WHEN DID LIVING BECOME A LUXURY?

There is something deeply disturbing about a generation that has become so accustomed to hardship that simply having a peaceful day feels like an achievement. People wake up every morning, not necessarily because they are excited about what life has to offer, but because they have responsibilities they cannot escape. Bills must be paid. Families must be supported. Dreams must somehow be kept alive, even when the resources to pursue them are nowhere to be found, somewhere along the line, survival became the primary ambition. Today, millions of young people are educated but unemployed, talented but undiscovered, ambitious but financially restricted. They have certificates they worked hard to obtain, ideas they desperately want to execute and dreams they cannot afford to pursue, yet society keeps telling them to be patient. But how long should patience last when opportunities remain scarce? How long should a young person continue preparing for a future that never seems to arrive? The problem is not that young people lack ambition. In many cases, they lack access. They are not necessarily lazy, irresponsible or unwilling to work. They are competing in an environment where connections sometimes matter more than competence, opportunities are unevenly distributed and financial circumstances can determine how far talent travels. Even adulthood has become expensive, people are expected to secure good jobs, establish businesses, build houses, marry, raise families and become financially independent. Yet the economic environment does not always provide the opportunities required to achieve these expectations. We celebrate people who succeed against all odds, but rarely ask why succeeding should require overcoming so many unnecessary obstacles in the first place. There is also a dangerous culture of pretending. On social media, everybody appears to be progressing. People display expensive lifestyles, successful businesses, beautiful relationships and seemingly perfect careers. Behind some of those pictures, however, are unpaid bills, emotional exhaustion, financial dependence and private struggles nobody wants to discuss. We have become better at looking successful than creating the conditions necessary for genuine success, and perhaps that is one of the saddest realities of our time. A society should not measure progress only by the number of wealthy individuals it produces. It should also examine whether ordinary citizens can afford food, access quality healthcare, obtain meaningful employment and live without constantly worrying about their next financial emergency, A country cannot sustainably celebrate its potential while neglecting the people expected to realise that potential, government has a responsibility to create an environment where education translates into opportunity, hard work has reasonable rewards and young people can build meaningful lives without depending entirely on luck or personal connections, employers must also recognise that experience cannot magically appear in the lives of graduates who are never given opportunities to acquire it. And society must stop treating poverty as evidence of personal failure. Not everybody struggling is irresponsible. Not everybody succeeding is necessarily more hardworking. Sometimes circumstances, access, privilege and opportunity make enormous differences. This is not an argument against personal responsibility. It is a reminder that individual determination cannot replace functional institutions, economic opportunities and responsible leadership, perhaps the most important question we should ask is this: If an entire generation is spending most of its energy trying to survive, who will have enough energy left to build the future? Young people deserve more than motivational speeches. They deserve functioning systems, accessible opportunities, decent employment and an economy in which ambition has a realistic chance of becoming achievement. Life should be about more than waking up, struggling, paying bills, sleeping and repeating the same exhausting cycle. Survival is necessary, but it should not be the highest standard of living a society offers its people, A generation should not have to beg for the opportunity to live the life it was educated, encouraged and inspired to build. Perhaps it is time we stopped asking young people why they are not doing enough and started asking whether society is doing enough for them.celebrate its potential while neglecting the people expected to realise that potential.