Like most modern "us" vs. "them", "team one" vs. "team two", "left" vs. "right", etc., they're BOTH in the right and BOTH in the wrong. Both sides are bitter manipulators, and only a small remnant can see that. The teams continue fighting, not realizing that if they don't cooperate, their society will fall apart. The outsiders aren't going to hold out for that, and so go on to quietly work on forming a new society.
I'm 20 years old.
On one end, I feel my peers definitely need to stop pretending they're little kings and just get the fucking work done. There are indeed too many hyper-sensitive, selfish, hipster losers among my peers. They need to turn their stupid cell phones off and act their age.
On the other end, I feel that most jobs are pointless and that careerism is for tools. Most jobs are quite simply social control or "keep 'em busy" wage labor activities. Mowing lawns? WTF? Why? Also, some jobs are simply unbearable. We have a ton of depressed morons working in factories, creating shitty products for shitty people. Fuck that, indeed.
We need to dispel this whole myth that you need a strong economy. Strong economies don't make powerful empires. Strong culture and philosophy does. Id est, realism (and not naive "realism" or "listen kid, that's just the way of the world, so shut up and show up on time").
I'm not endorsing liberalism, individualism, Marxism, or any kind of "teh werkerz r oppressed!!!111 rize up!!!!111" or "werk sukcs, just do wutever, and leech of the system / your parents, man" attitudes, but let's be realistic: Most jobs are fucking pointless.
The reason the masters and students got along a lot better in ancient societies was that (1) they were actual masters of an art form who sought to produce beauty and not soul-less, shrewd executives / managers who sought to produce profit margins and (2) there was still commitment and hard work, but it actually produced something beautiful and meaningful, not just a pay check.
I know this first hand as I do a lot of carpentry work with my father. It's not that people don't like working. It's that they don't like pointless activity. I dislike fixing up some moron's walls because some other morons built the foundation incorrectly, but I do it anyway because I like the work in general.
I like reading wood working magazines and studying architecture and construction. You can do some amazing, beautiful things with wood. I do like crafting fine furniture, making strong, sturdy walls, making even, fit roofs, making all-around beautiful houses, making everything structurally lines up. It's "work", and so it's sometimes boring, but overall it's rewarding.
Most jobs aren't like that. They're simply a means to a pay check.