Latest / The SEANC View / Gen Z Takes Over: Navigating North Carolina Politics and Legislation

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Gen Z Takes Over: Navigating North Carolina Politics and Legislation · The SEANC View

• 0:00
  Welcome back to the Scenic View podcast. Today is another Gen Z takeover episode.
• 0:06
  My name is Samantha Klein, and I am the digital communication specialist here at Scenic.
• 0:11
  And with me today is Don Travis Williams.
• 0:14
  He is one of our member relations representatives, as well as Adam Weinbarger,
• 0:19
  who is also a member relations representative.
• 0:22
  Then we have Tiana Alberts, who is one of our insurance specialists.
• 0:26
  And a guest who is a member is Alexandra Callback, who is a probation and parole officer.
• 0:34
  Welcome, everyone. Thank you. Thank you for having me.
• 0:40
  Music.
• 0:49
  So the last time that we did a gen
• 0:52
  z takeover episode was more than a year ago and we focused a lot on what attracts
• 0:58
  members under 40 younger millennials older gen z's however this year we are
• 1:03
  in the middle of a long session at the general assembly which means all of the
• 1:07
  new bills are being introduced and they are passing the budget.
• 1:10
  Right now, we have not gotten the budget for this year yet.
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  We have heard Governor Stein's proposed budget as well as the Senate's proposed
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  budget. We are still waiting for the proposed House budget.
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  But there's a lot of things going on. And I know, Don, you were at the General
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  Assembly with me last week.
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  What was your perspective on how that lobby day went?
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  My experience was amazing. My first time ever being in the North Carolina General
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  Assembly, kind of seeing how it worked, the system,
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  actually meeting representatives like Edward Goodwin, which he was very,
• 1:42
  very personal with me, gave me some life advice.
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  So, but with us being there, fighting and talking about 549 bill,
• 1:51
  watching that go through, I think that it was important that we had state employees there.
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  I like how they did recognize us because they do know what scenic does for state
• 2:01
  employees and retirees.
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  But my speech there was really good.
• 2:06
  Yeah, it is very intense when it's your first time at the General Assembly.
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  It's a very confusing building. None of you have been down there,
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  have you? I'm stuck in the mountains all the time.
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  Okay, it's not stuck. It is beautiful out there. I love it. I would rather be
• 2:20
  in the mountains. But I have not.
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  Answer your moral story. I have not made it to the General Assembly.
• 2:25
  It's a very confusing building.
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  It's basically a bunch of squares that you are walking around trying to find
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  different legislators' office.
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  Or where the actual Senate and House meet and find their chambers.
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  It's very interesting exploring. The first time I went, two,
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  three years ago, I was lost.
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  I had no idea where I was going. Chris told me to meet him by the fountain.
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  There's like six fountains in that building.
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  But what he was talking about with House Bill 549, that is the bill that takes
• 2:57
  the state human resources protections from some of the employees in the auditor's office.
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  If you guys are not fully versed on that bill, I figured I would give you guys
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  a general overview of it.
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  And it did pass the House and will be moving to the Senate.
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  What are you guys' thoughts on that?
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  Well, me personally, bills like that is just, it spills over into other agencies,
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  which is the terrifying part of it.
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  You know, being a state where like the at-right state, North Carolina is one
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  of four states in our country where there's no unions, no collective bargaining, no strikes.
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  So the Human Resource Act was one of the only blankets of protection for state employees.
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  And if it just opens up Pandora's box, then all those protections are just going
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  out the window. The general public legitimately just, they do not realize that
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  without state employees, our state is not healthy. Our state is not clean. It's not educated.
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  You can't drive across our state without state employees. So having these protections
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  in place just to make it to where someone would want to work for the state in
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  the first place is incredibly important. Also, just to get rid of whoever you
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  wanted for whatever reason.
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  There's no documentation they would have to put forth to get rid of employees,
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  if I'm not mistaken on this bill.
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  It's just, it's scary on what could happen, what could come from it.
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  I know it's starting just in the auditor's office, but it could very easily
• 4:25
  spill over into any other agency and department across the state. Yeah.
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  Yeah. And Allie, as a state employee, how does this make you feel?
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  I think my biggest thing with this bill is what does it mean for day-to-day
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  life in the office, in the work setting.
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  And I think that state employees need to be informed about the things that are
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  being brought to the General Assembly and be informed about things that are happening,
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  period, because scenic is kind of the only way that I've learned anything about
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  the political system as a whole.
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  With this bill, it does take away some of the aspect of merit-based hiring.
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  And because they're no longer protected by the State Human Resources Act,
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  they could remove employees and replace them with, say, someone who they view
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  as more of a political appointee.
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  And that affects the quality of work, I believe, that we're getting.
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  Because these are people's buddies who are getting just favors handed out to them and saying,
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  OK, well, what can you do for me because I did something for you,
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  rather than people who are really focused on the taxpayers and the state employees
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  and getting the best people for the job.
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  What about you, Tia? What do you think about this bill?
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  I am thinking more that I would like more transparency of what was the end goal with passing this.
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  Was it for the benefit of their constituents
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  or was this only to benefit politically for someone higher up?
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  And it should always be for the benefit of our state workers and the future
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  of how our state is run rather than anything politically motivated because politics
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  flip and flop. throughout time.
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  So I want more transparency there. And if I can say something a little bit more
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  bold, when it comes to something that can open Pandora's box,
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  I would have liked all of the representatives to have been there representing their constituents.
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  And I heard that that was not the case. There were quite a few members that
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  really could have changed the outcome of whether or not this bill was passed.
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  Yes, I know there was four Democratic representatives who were absent that day.
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  And there were also some representatives who stepped out of the room during the vote.
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  It was a very close vote to the point where I think that shows that this is not a very strong bill.
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  And hopefully the Senate sees that whenever they get to it.
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  Because what we heard on the floor was we will fix this whenever it goes to
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  the Senate side because there is a lot of issues within that bill.
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  The sponsors of the bill were mentioning that we will fix those issues when
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  it's in the Senate. What do you guys think about that?
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  I think saying that you need to fix it, there's obviously something very wrong
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  with what got passed. I agree with one of the House representatives.
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  Why are we trying to pass this bill so fast? Take the time to actually fix it before we try to pass.
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  We have plenty of time to pass this bill.
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  So I just think that they need to take their time to fix it before they try to send it to the Senate.
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  Well, it's just, it's incredibly ironic because a big topic on the state and
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  federally is government efficiency.
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  And how is it efficient to push something through to get passed and say,
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  oh, we're going to fix it later. Yeah. Don't worry. We got you.
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  And it kind of, for me, it seems that the House is trying to,
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  I know they passed a deal 474, the Days Act.
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  So it's like they're trying to give a lot of power to the state auditor very, very quick.
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  Like one of the House representatives said, and I like to repeat because he
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  did a great job of explaining it.
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  And I believe that was representative longest.
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  Yes. So today we can have a amazing state auditor who actually wants to do a good job.
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  But this state auditor after him still gets the same power and he can't be it's
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  possible that he's not amazing as the current one that we do have.
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  Yeah, it seems kind of like a just because we don't have to worry about the
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  current state auditor necessarily taking advantage of that power.
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  It doesn't mean that we don't have to worry about a future state auditor who
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  may be of a different political party and doesn't have the same views as some
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  of his staff and says, I don't like you.
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  I want you gone. because we hope that no one would ever take advantage of that
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  power and turn it into something like that.
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  But some people do enjoy the power, and it's very unfortunate to say that that
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  is something that could happen.
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  We want to believe that none of our state representatives would do that,
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  but you never know, which is why we have those state human resources protections in place.
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  Correct. It's huge. It affects North Carolinians' lives by cutting different
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  state agencies and vacancy jobs.
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  You know, we are at a shortage already as a state.
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  So it's very, very important to have this power in the right hands, if even given out.
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  And for those of you who don't know, the DAVE Act is a position that gives the
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  auditor power to review different state agency positions and decide whether they are needed or not.
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  There is an AI perspective to it. We don't know how that will be utilized,
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  but it was included in the DAVE Act.
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  What are you guys' thoughts on giving the auditor that kind of power to look
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  at jobs and make those suggestions of this job needs to be removed?
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  Well, as long as they're suggestions and not demands at the end of the day.
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  Because growing up, you know, going through school and doing like social studies
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  and whatnot, everyone talked about checks and balances within government.
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  Giving this type of power to a single person or office that I don't really consider
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  that checks and balances.
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  Me personally, that's my two cents on it, but it's just, it's,
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  it can make one feel uneasy. You know what I mean?
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  It does sound like too much power is going to one person. Yeah.
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  And I see where the fear is with that, because it's definitely scary whenever
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  you go from a position that even I, a couple of weeks ago, I wasn't sure what the auditor did.
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  And it's very jarring when you have so many taxpayers and residents of the state
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  who aren't aware what the auditor does. And now you're giving him this amount of power.
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  You know, from my experience, when it comes to numbers and especially money,
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  you want as many eyes on it as possible to make sure everything's correct and
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  everything is in accordance.
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  Also, you don't want to give people fear. I think that is a big aspect is that it's scary.
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  It's a very much an unknown and you never know what people are going to do with that kind of power.
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  And it is jarring. Now, shifting topics a little bit, the political setting
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  for Gen Z is very different than it was previously.
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  From my perspective, as someone who is not very political, I am very much in
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  the middle and I kind of take every issue at face value.
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  How do you think that our current political climate affects how Gen Z's and
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  younger millennials view the political parties?
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  I think the current social climate is you have to be fully one or fully the
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  other. And whereas it seemed like you used to be able to talk about things and
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  you can discuss certain things and you can kind of be in the middle.
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  And like you said, look at, you know, policies and topics that people are bringing
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  up and you can look at which one you want and you can vote that way.
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  But I think there's been such a push to be extremist about politics.
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  I'm sure it's frustrating because they may
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  like aspects from one side and the other however
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  they're seeing maybe one side isn't fighting all
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  that hard and they don't seem genuine and the other side is just going buck
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  wild and hard hitting and it's i'm sure frustrating because they're like who
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  can i really trust out here to really have my back with our future yeah what
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  i'll say is coming from the millennial and even the Gen Z side,
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  the divide in the country, it's as big as it's ever been.
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  There's a visible, almost tangible divide between left and right.
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  And we see that in the general public. And we also see that within state government,
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  federal government, all that.
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  And working across the aisle is just out of the picture.
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  And just a younger adult with decades
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  and decades ahead of us the hope keeps getting
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  lower and lower of like what the future holds you know i mean because
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  if and i'm not calling anybody out any one party but working across aisles just
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  it doesn't seem like it's a thing anymore as you were saying earlier like back
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  in the day it seemed like left and right could argue could debate but they still
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  wanted to work together to a better future for our state and our country but
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  it just doesn't seem like that's,
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  a thing anymore, state and federal level. Yeah, definitely.
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  I agree with a good friend, Adam. I feel like we should be able to work together,
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  not just for each other's parties, but their mindset should be,
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  because we're in this position, we're here to actually serve the public.
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  This is tax pay dollars that they are receiving to be in this position.
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  So they should put people and citizens first of actually what they're trying
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  to achieve, not based off of what their parties want them to lean towards.
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  Bouncing off of discussing the social climate and how the two parties slash
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  Gen Z and Young Millennials kind of see, as we've all said, things have been more divided than ever.
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  What do you think as Gen Z and Younger Millennials we can do,
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  whether it just be with talking to our friends or talking to peers?
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  What do you think we can do to work on bridging that gap and getting back to
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  a place where we can have these political conversations without them turning
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  into massive disagreements and we can work across the aisle.
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  Get off social media with these issues because our age group,
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  everyone's a social warrior.
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  Some people are social warriors without a cause, which is a whole nother issue in itself.
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  But our age group, they'll talk your ear off about some of these issues,
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  but a lot of them just won't do anything about it.
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  They'll go straight to Facebook or, well, most of us don't use Facebook like
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  that, but Instagram, TikTok, all that.
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  We'll go there first, but that's not where change starts.
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  It starts how you vote and then voicing your opinion to the people who are in those offices.
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  Those elected officials, whether you voted for them or not, they're still going
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  to be making decisions on your behalf.
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  I think that's where it starts because everyone our age, we have opinions We're
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  not afraid to speak up, but we just don't speak up in the right platform,
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  I guess would be the best way to put it.
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  I just recently had a discussion kind of with my friends about this and let
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  me know if you guys kind of view it the same way.
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  I think that for some of us, at least me, I know I was in college during COVID,
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  right when COVID went down and everyone was at home on lockdown.
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  And that definitely made it difficult to connect and socialize with people.
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  And so people did turn a lot to social media.
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  And I feel like in that, they became more brazen in the things that they said,
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  because when you're saying something behind a screen, it's very different than
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  saying something and having a conversation face-to-face with someone. Mm-hmm.
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  So they became very comfortable with, I can say whatever I want and there are
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  limited repercussions.
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  Yeah, people online might not like me. People online might not like what I say,
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  but it's not like I'm going to get hurt.
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  It became a thing of not having conversations anymore, but being blatantly disrespectful
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  and not willing to be open-minded.
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  And I hate to say it, but I do think social media has destroyed people's communication
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  skills. Social skills are out the window because of. Yeah, definitely.
• 16:31
  Yeah. Yeah, it was cuckoo. And I think to go with that too, people are so afraid
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  to go against the grain, to go against, you know, this is how we've always done it. This is how it is.
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  This is, people are so scared to go against that, that they just fall in line.
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  Whereas I think if we had more discussion on like differences and more openness
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  to different ways to do things, that it could make some changes for the better.
• 16:56
  Yeah. Conversations instead of attacks. Exactly.
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  I think it would be a great way to, yeah. And I do feel like in certain aspects
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  of the political environment, there are common goals between the left and the right side.
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  However, they're letting those different goals get in the way of them coming
• 17:13
  together to discuss a common goal.
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  Because when I look at politics, I see more of a bridge and connection in the
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  economical side in that everyone wants things to be efficient.
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  Everyone wants things to be cheaper.
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  You can't necessarily agree on how to do those things.
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  I think it's really just a lack of information and misconstrued information.
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  And that has also been a big topic this year. That's been a big topic since I started here.
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  Transparency. We have asked so many times to see contracts that are made with
• 17:46
  the state health plan and how those could be improved.
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  Because when you hear about some of these contracts with Ozempic,
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  for example, was a very big one, Wagovi last year.
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  Why is America getting charged so much more than any other country when it's
• 18:01
  made right down the road in Clayton, North Carolina?
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  I think it's also a lot of legal language that no one else understands.
• 18:07
  You know, they talk about legalese and it's like, OK, can we layman's terms this?
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  Put it in the General Assembly as the language that it needs to be and then
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  maybe break it down to the general public's way of speaking so that we can understand
• 18:21
  what is actually happening.
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  What does it actually mean to pass this bill? What is it going to change?
• 18:27
  How is it going to affect state employees, city employees, everyone else?
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  And when we're talking about transparency, yes, we are talking about those contracts,
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  but we are also talking about where the money goes for different agencies because
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  state employees and retirees have not been getting significant raises the past few years.
• 18:48
  Retirees have gotten a cost of living bonus. That is not the same thing as a
• 18:52
  cost of living adjustment.
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  It's usually a one or two percent bonus, which is a gas for some people about
• 18:58
  that, because after taxes, that brings them down to almost. Nothing.
• 19:03
  And we have discussed at the office before, the state retirement plan is supposed to fund itself.
• 19:08
  Our members and all retirees have been contributing their 6%.
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  And what are some things that you guys feel like Gen Z and millennials want
• 19:17
  to see more transparency on? Where do we start?
• 19:22
  And I think it's different for each person. Well, going off of the legal jargon
• 19:28
  and the terminology that they use, I just feel like the reason why they do that
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  is the general public can't understand it.
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  It makes their jobs a lot easier because of their constituents and people voting
• 19:39
  don't know what's actually going on.
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  It makes their job a lot easier. They can do almost whatever the heck they want.
• 19:44
  And that's just my stance on it. you know, I'm like you, I wasn't the biggest
• 19:47
  political person until I started working for Scenic.
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  And that's, you know, within the last year and a half, two years is when I really
• 19:55
  started paying attention, especially on the state level.
• 19:57
  I mean, since 2020, the federal politics have been jammed down our throats.
• 20:02
  I think that's another thing, like,
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  A lot of our generations are just burnt out because it doesn't matter left or right.
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  They all talk about change and what they want the future to be or to look like.
• 20:13
  But it's always the same thing every single year, every single election.
• 20:16
  It's the same issues. It almost seems like a distraction on other issues.
• 20:19
  They're probably more important.
• 20:20
  There's way more prevalent things that directly affect not only our generation,
• 20:26
  but the elementary school kids who are coming up and the high school kids who
• 20:29
  are about to become adults.
• 20:30
  Yeah. There's really no reason to argue about some of these more ethical issues.
• 20:35
  But a lot of these national ethical issues, it's just like we've been arguing
• 20:39
  about it since I can remember.
• 20:41
  And nothing's changed. Since before we were born. Exactly.
• 20:44
  Yeah. I feel like almost every single election cycle, you might take one or two steps forward.
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  But as soon as that election happens, we start taking three steps back.
• 20:54
  Yeah. Once again, our generation doesn't really seem like there's much hope.
• 20:58
  And do you think that maybe that as we grew up, we just happened to enter that
• 21:03
  age of the workforce and college and the time where we can vote?
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  And do you guys think that that has an impact on the way that this generation
• 21:13
  and the millennials all view politics?
• 21:16
  I would say I noticed after Obama was elected, that's when everything got more
• 21:21
  extreme because, you know, he was the first black president because it was such a progressive thing.
• 21:26
  And to us, it's like such a minor thing.
• 21:29
  But for I don't know, it just just wasn't the same after that.
• 21:34
  And then it got more extreme and more extreme.
• 21:36
  So all of our normal things to us in our big melting pot, all of a sudden people
• 21:42
  wanted to separate them out.
• 21:44
  And then I noticed another big change during COVID and people getting locked in their house.
• 21:51
  QAnon came about. And in my opinion, I know we don't want to get in like conspiracy
• 21:55
  theories or anything, but I saw a huge change between like big divides after that as well.
• 22:02
  Yeah, definitely COVID was like the nail getting.
• 22:06
  The final nail in the coffin. I think to go with that, I think it became about
• 22:11
  surviving instead of living. Yes. After COVID hit.
• 22:15
  Yeah, because everything did just skyrocket during COVID, too. They shut down.
• 22:19
  Prices won. People didn't know how to come back if they've been in the house
• 22:22
  because most people were stuck in the house.
• 22:25
  People didn't really know how to come back out. The social climate changed.
• 22:28
  Everything really changed. And then there was this huge divide.
• 22:31
  Not going to get too far into it, but huge divide with the vaccines.
• 22:34
  And, you know, people were fighting about that, fighting about wearing masks,
• 22:38
  fighting about everything.
• 22:39
  And it really just became about surviving instead of just living.
• 22:43
  And to add on to that also, now that we are adults and we finally came into
• 22:47
  our career, what we have now, as far as, let's say, a salary back in the day
• 22:52
  was great. It would have been perfect.
• 22:55
  Now we're considered poverty level. Like buying a house, they're like,
• 22:59
  oh, you make this amount of much?
• 23:00
  If it's like below 100K, you're considered poverty. I'm shocked by that.
• 23:05
  And then we have older generations not understanding that.
• 23:08
  Like, oh, why can't you afford a home, an apartment? It should be like $300 a month.
• 23:13
  No, it's like the average is, what, $1,500.
• 23:18
  Even a wedding dress back in the day, they probably thought like $200 was a lot.
• 23:22
  But you will spend about $1,000 plus on a wedding dress.
• 23:27
  So things like that, it's like they don't understand. And then because they
• 23:30
  don't understand, they're like, why are they so angry? And I'm like,
• 23:33
  how are you not understanding?
• 23:36
  Why are you not aware of the political environment, what we're all going through,
• 23:41
  and not understanding why we're not having kids and everything else?
• 23:44
  Yeah well with the home purchasing a home
• 23:47
  a couple days ago i was reading an article i want to say it
• 23:49
  was from forbes but don't quote me on that i was just
• 23:52
  going through this state by state how much your
• 23:55
  household income should be to afford a
• 23:58
  i think it was a three-bedroom home which is a modest home in north carolina
• 24:02
  was somewhat mid-range like a little higher but it was a hundred and i want
• 24:07
  to say forty eight thousand dollars annually for a household income is what
• 24:12
  they said you should make to comfortably afford a three-bedroom home,
• 24:17
  I don't make that. No. I would love to make that.
• 24:20
  That'd be comfortable. I could probably... Apparently, that would be barely comfortable.
• 24:24
  Exactly. That's what it's like. If I stayed in my apartment,
• 24:27
  I'd be comfortable. But...
• 24:29
  So in 2020, I was a sophomore in college at North Carolina A&T.
• 24:34
  But when I remember seeing stimulus checks go out, everybody receiving thousands
• 24:38
  of dollars across the United States, I knew that it was going to be a price increase.
• 24:45
  I would say history previously told us or showed us the trickle down effect.
• 24:51
  Something that's generous, nice, and actually seems like free money at the time.
• 24:56
  Now we see the prices increase.
• 24:59
  That's things that I think citizens should have maybe seen before,
• 25:03
  but are actually feeling it now, which our generation will feel that for a long
• 25:08
  time of the different stimulus checks and the child's vouchers that are actually going out.
• 25:14
  Now, with us graduating and actually wanting to start a career,
• 25:19
  we're looking at different state agencies and state jobs.
• 25:21
  There used to be just a requirement when it came to degrees.
• 25:26
  Now it's high school requirement, diploma, and actually having the experience.
• 25:33
  So you could be the smartest person in the world, but if you don't have that
• 25:36
  experience, you're not going to get a good job, a good salary when it comes to the state.
• 25:41
  And you're going to start off at maybe $30,000, $35,000, which is kind of hard
• 25:46
  if you're graduating college.
• 25:47
  You might have student loans to pay and actually living on your own.
• 25:52
  Maybe that the benefits and the pay aren't as appealing to our generation as
• 25:59
  they were to the generations that came before us because the benefits are dwindling.
• 26:05
  Correct. And they're asking for a lot. Yeah.
• 26:08
  Bachelor's degree for entry level. What?
• 26:12
  Overtime hours a lot, especially in the Department of Corrections.
• 26:16
  And if you have for yourself, like I have a master's degree.
• 26:19
  So working for $35,000 just seems kind of like a ripoff.
• 26:25
  I hate to say being able not to actually have insurance when it comes to retirement is crazy.
• 26:32
  I know Scenic does offer insurance, supplemental insurances that you could take
• 26:36
  with you when you retire, which is amazing.
• 26:39
  And Scenic has always been stepping
• 26:40
  up to actually help state employees to provide affordable insurance.
• 26:44
  That's huge, especially in today's age.
• 26:47
  Providing that knowledge when we do membership drives as a MER,
• 26:51
  a lot of people do jump and sign on to our different insurance plans because
• 26:56
  noticing that you're able to take it with you, honor domestic partnerships, open enrollment.
• 27:02
  People do need these types of insurance after the closed deadline time from working with the state.
• 27:08
  And those discounts save your money, boo. Can't forget that.
• 27:12
  People used to work for the state for the benefits.
• 27:15
  They're like, oh, the money is good enough, but you have really good benefits.
• 27:19
  Well, the benefits are decreasing and the salary is not increasing at the rate
• 27:26
  that it should be to counteract the benefits decreasing.
• 27:30
  Yeah. All right. Are we ready for the wacky weird question of the week? Play it. Let's do it.
• 27:36
  Sunny's wacky weird question of the week. So this week, our Wacky Weird Question
• 27:42
  of the Week is, what is an underrated skill that you think everyone can benefit from? I'll go first.
• 27:49
  I put making plans, making plans, detailed plans, and then taking the initiative to conduct them.
• 27:56
  And I say this because I'm somebody that when I'm laying in bed,
• 27:59
  I'm thinking about tomorrow.
• 28:01
  I'm thinking about everything that needs to be done. And I'm trying to schedule
• 28:03
  it out to where I'm able to get as much done as possible on time.
• 28:08
  And there are some people out there when it comes to, let's say,
• 28:11
  vacation. I don't want to make the plans.
• 28:12
  I don't want to make the calls. You go ahead and take care of it.
• 28:14
  And I'm like, it's a big skill and taking charge.
• 28:18
  So I think it's underrated. more people should try it. It's a good one.
• 28:21
  Okay, so to piggyback off some of the stuff we were talking about,
• 28:24
  I think communication is
• 28:25
  one of the skills that we need to bring back into play because social media
• 28:31
  has kind of killed being able to actually effectively communicate with each
• 28:37
  other because one person talking at another person and then just listening,
• 28:41
  that's not communicating.
• 28:42
  Arguing and fighting with each other as a whole conversation,
• 28:45
  that's not effectively communicating.
• 28:48
  We need to stop hearing and we need to start listening to what someone else is saying.
• 28:53
  Fully listen to it, grasp it, and then respond.
• 28:57
  So effective communication, I think, is a skill that we all need to work on within ourselves.
• 29:02
  I will say transparency is a skill that I would love to see more people to have.
• 29:06
  Being honest with yourself, not lying to people, for example,
• 29:11
  legislative, being in positions who are actually not following through with their promises.
• 29:16
  So I just, I will say transparency is something that people need to work on
• 29:21
  or either provide to others.
• 29:23
  An underrated skill, say reading an analog clock.
• 29:27
  That's a really good one. When I worked for the state, I was at Alexander Juvenile Detention Center.
• 29:33
  Those kids asked me every five minutes what time it was. And there was a giant clock on the wall.
• 29:38
  And these 14 to 19 year olds, they just would look at me with a blank stare.
• 29:42
  They didn't know how. Wow. So learn to read a clock.
• 29:45
  Can I add to that? Mm-hmm. Learning the 24-hour clock. Yeah. Military time.
• 29:50
  Well, it's not even military time. I'm just saying people need to like...
• 29:54
  The vast majority of the world use the... Sorry.
• 29:57
  Exactly. I agree with you. I just mess up with the subtracting sometimes.
• 30:01
  Like for the most part, I know how to read it. Me too. I understand it.
• 30:05
  It's just sometimes whenever I'm adding and subtracting, I get a little confused
• 30:08
  and they'll say like 1,700 hours and I'm like...
• 30:12
  Let me do the math in my head. Right. Subtract 12. Is it 5? 5 o'clock.
• 30:16
  Well, sometimes I'll see like 17 and I'll be like, 7. No, 5. It's fine. Yeah.
• 30:20
  I did a different way. Let's say if it's 1,400, I just subtract 2.
• 30:23
  So I know it's 2 o'clock. Oh, that's fine. Yeah, that too. See, I should use that way.
• 30:27
  That sounds better for me. I have one more silly one to add. Yeah.
• 30:31
  Leaving a public restroom without making a mess. Yeah. Definitely.
• 30:35
  Preach. Yeah. That's a good skill. Especially when you go to like football games,
• 30:39
  baseball games. Airports. Yes.
• 30:42
  Concerts are the worst. Like some people have no shame. I don't know how you
• 30:46
  do it. I want to leave my stall and have someone go in and be like, oh, thank God.
• 30:49
  Yeah, it's clean and I still have toilet paper.
• 30:53
  How about just saying thank you, common decency? Yeah. I think for me,
• 30:57
  my answer is independence.
• 30:58
  I think people have slowly grown more codependent on constantly having someone
• 31:03
  around and having someone to help them with doing different things.
• 31:07
  And I think that we need to work on accepting being alone with yourself and
• 31:13
  being able to do things on your own.
• 31:16
  I think with that, welcoming boredom. People are so quick to just pick up their
• 31:20
  phone. We're just not being productive.
• 31:22
  People are like, oh, I feel like I'm wasting time. Like, no,
• 31:24
  it's being relaxed is not wasting your time. Once again, our generation, was it FOMO?
• 31:29
  Yes, FOMO was a huge thing. Don't worry about it.
• 31:32
  But you remember our generation. I think we were the end of actually going outside,
• 31:38
  playing three or four hours, and then the street lights come on or it gets dark.
• 31:42
  You have to be in the house.
• 31:44
  I mean, I remember internet used to make a noise. Yep.
• 31:49
  House phones. Oh, if mom wanted to talk to somebody, no more internet. Yep.
• 31:54
  Yeah, I definitely had that. Well, I'm sure we could talk for hours about all
• 31:59
  the differences in our generation versus the upcoming generations,
• 32:03
  as well as the previous generations. I thank you guys for coming and joining
• 32:06
  me today on this special Gen Z episode.
• 32:09
  Thank you. Oh, yeah. Thank you. Thank you. Love to do it again.
• 32:13
  Part two coming soon. Let's do it. Let's do it.
• 32:17
  Music.