OnlyFans and AI training: why gen Z doesn’t care where our money comes from | Alice Lassman
This Guardian comment piece argues that generation Z, facing unaffordable housing, insecure jobs and delayed family formation, has grown indifferent to traditional career paths and, increasingly, to how money is earned at all. The author terms this "production nihilism": a shift away from stable, prestige-driven employment towards fragmented "polyworking" that includes freelance platforms, content creation, OnlyFans and even training AI language models, as long-term economic hope has broken down.
The piece cites figures showing only 6% of young people see a leadership role as their primary career goal, while 57% of generation Z report having a side hustle, more than double the rate among baby boomers. It links this to broader "financial nihilism" trends such as meme stocks and cryptocurrency, framing both as responses to a foreclosed sense of future prosperity, with young people increasingly extracting value from the present rather than deferring gratification for a promised, but unattainable, stable future.
- Gen Z increasingly indifferent to how, not just where, they earn money
- Author calls this trend "production nihilism" amid economic insecurity
- 57% of gen Z report having a side hustle, versus fewer boomers
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Generation Z, usually defined as people born from the late 1990s to the early 2010s, is entering adulthood amid high housing costs and insecure work. Many combine several jobs or income sources, including freelance work, online content and platform-based tasks.
The debate is about whether this shift reflects changing attitudes to work or a response to fewer reliable routes to financial security. It matters because it raises questions about how young people can build stable lives, and how technology platforms shape the ways they earn money.
Both sides, in good faith
The strongest fair case each way — we don't pick a winner.
The case for
With housing costs high, work insecure and traditional career routes offering less reliable rewards, it is reasonable for young people to pursue several income streams and judge work by what it can provide now. Polyworking, content creation or AI data work can offer flexibility and agency, while questioning prestige-based careers may reflect a sober response to weakened prospects rather than a lack of ambition.
The case against
Economic insecurity can explain these choices without making every way of earning equally sustainable or fulfilling. Fragmented platform work may bring unstable income, limited protections and pressure to turn private life or personal data into a commodity; treating all work as mere extraction could also obscure the value of skills, collective protections and longer-term investment in a career.
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