A candidate for mayor of Medellín (whose name I will not say to avoid this article being seen in a biased way) did an interesting task: he virtually surveyed young people from the different communes of the city to capture not only how they perceive the place where they live, but also how they see themselves and their future.
The exercise consisted of collecting more than 2,000 opinions from young people between the ages of 18 and 28 from popular neighborhoods and t…
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A candidate for mayor of Medellín (whose name I will not say to avoid this article being seen in a biased way) did an interesting task: he virtually surveyed young people from the different communes of the city to capture not only how they perceive the place where they live, but also how they see themselves and their future.
The exercise consisted of collecting more than 2,000 opinions from young people between the ages of 18 and 28 from popular neighborhoods and also from wealthy sectors with questions such as “Are you earning enough to be able to buy the food your home needs?” or “How do you think the streets of your city are?” or “What do you think is the use of learning English?” In total there are 18 free-response questions, which allows us to see more clearly the issues that are currently on the minds of those who could be a powerful force to change our society or, on the contrary, be a new generation lost in the middle of the intolerance, violence, lack of opportunities and the failure of our educational policy.
Two of the questions posed to the young people caught my attention. The first: “What do you think are the best paid jobs in Medellín?” yields a series of responses that are far, far away from pointing out the executive positions of large companies that have their headquarters in that city, who without a doubt they have salaries of millions of pesos. The most common answers were: Onlyfans, webcam, prostitution, drug dealer, payday and trading. Onlyfans being the one that is read in all social strata.
You don’t have to be an ultra-conservative person to be overwhelmed by the list of options to get rich that the city offers. None of the traditional careers taught in public or private universities appear here. You also don’t see the entrepreneurial spirit of the one who sets up his business with the hope of seeing it prosper. On the contrary, sex work (whether physical or on screen) and the illegal economy are seen as the path to wealth. Why study? Why try?
In fact, that same conclusion is reached when looking at the answers to the second question that caught my attention: “What is your dream job?”
In the answers to this concern, the options vary greatly from one commune to another. While in areas with a high socioeconomic level there is talk of being a lawyer, soccer player, pilot or doctor, when reviewing the results in more popular sectors, the answers reveal a bleak picture: being a singer, earning a lot and working little, drug dealer or not working . This last response, in fact, is transversal in all sectors. Young people would prefer not to have to work.
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What is happening in a society where young people do not want to work? What happens in a place where the option to get rich without doing much is Onlyfans? Perhaps these questions deserve more than a debate between politicians and need an urgent reflection of the country. Or maybe we’ve been wrong and instead of doing what we’re doing we should open our semi-porn profile on Onlyfans.
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2023-09-08 04:30:00
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