They see capitalism as an empty pursuit. As a Gen-X-er, I know that I do.

I raised a Gen-Y-er and a Gen-Z-er respectively, and the thing we all have in common is that we're willing to work hard and diligently. What we aren't willing to do is kill ourselves for any corporations. Participation trophies aside (which, btw, is a Gen Y concept <ages 25-40>, not Gen Z <ages 9-24> that's being talked about), the real issue is corporate culture.

Corporate culture, by design, is about devaluing people for profit. And while current business schools teach "valuing" people to improve productivity, too often corporations don't put resources into ensuring that their employees have enough training and support to be competitive.

Gen Z may also be recognizing a change from human work to AI/machine work. We will be losing jobs in the future as computers are more efficient/don't need the breaks that humans do. What jobs will be left for people in the job market is a question that remains speculative at best.

Also, capitalism today is not "fair market capitalism" as described in economic books. Corporate welfare and market manipulations are far too prevalent for there to be true capitalism. Large corporations almost never fail because their lobbyists push for things like the 2009 crash bailouts to ease them through what /should/ utterly kill them.

Gen Z has lived through two big economic disasters--and more power to them for recognizing the instability of the rat race versus trying to find a better way. After all, isn't that the American Dream--to find a better way of life?