There’s a part of Franz Kafka's Metamorphosis that’s stuck in my mind. At the end of the story, not long after Gregor Samsa has died of shame and illness, his sister Grete “was the first to get out and spread her young body.” It’s a description especially unsettling at the end of a novella which doubles as a scathing critique about working-class survival.
In 2026 there are many young adults who will leave high school and college in America and wonder whether their fate will be like Grete or Gregor’s. While Gregor has a tragic death, it’s not as if Grete’s future is guaranteed. I can see her now going out into the world now and realizing that any of the pay and career equality that women have tried to carve out in the past decades has eroded. She realizes that every job interview is trying to convince more bosses to hire less Woke and more MAGA.
When I think of Gregor it reminds me of the rise of Nick Fuentes and his Groyper movement. Gregor has insight enough to realize that his time’s up and he’ll never be able to financially provide for himself or family. My most charitable view of the Groypers and young MAGA males is that they understand they’re being economically boxed out of having any economic power within their lifetimes.
It’s difficult to say what career opportunities are still viable for young adults or adults in the age 30-65 bracket. I can’t imagine there are any good job opportunities with benefits left in America for children who aren’t born to parents who are business or political elites. Ten years ago there was the refrain “Just go into web development. Learn to program computers. Those jobs pay well.” However, as AI companies build products that make those development and programming skills obsolete, the workers become redundant. What ex-software engineers are supposed to re-train themselves I’m not certain. I think if they met with blue-collar workers who had careers in coal mining or car manufacturing they’d have a lot to talk about.
I don’t believe that a career in medicine is a smart idea. Everyone complains about the American healthcare system except the insurers. I worked for nearly eight years in case management at a medical startup and despite having positive manager reviews, I was let go. The field of healthcare and medicine isn’t looking great if the answer to patient interaction is hiring an interchangeable cast of medical professionals on an at-will basis. Patients don’t want this. And young adults aren’t encouraged to join the medical profession if the doctors they see are burnt out.
I vividly recall the last financial crisis which seemed to last from about 2008 to 2012. I floated in a vulnerable post-college space. It was something I had to go through. But I had good teachers along the way. “If you’re going to sell your soul then make sure you get a good price for it,” one person said. That worked for him. Yet I also learned that work as a mindset isn’t for everyone. Some people exist in an eternal child-like space of wonder and curiosity though not necessarily everyone manages to make a job out of that. I’m grateful to be curious through writing. And grateful that today I still enjoy listening to recorded music as much as I did 20 years ago. Compared to these concerns, work’s uninteresting.