Further evidence of (big-D) Depression?
Consider the mutual implications of those thoughts in the context of the state of our economy. Starbucks casts a wide net in both cities and suburbs, the concentrated centers of population and wealth compared to small towns and rural areas. If people in familiar service positions in the most robust parts of our country are at risk of losing jobs and health insurance - because people there don’t make enough money to patronize them anymore - how is that not a Depression? When people who serve everyone stop seeing middle and working class folks at the coffee bar in the morning, how the fuck is that not a Depression?
We know that, adjusted for inflation, wages have been stagnant for years. But Boomers by and large have not taught my generation how to manage money, and how to avoid constantly cashing in our neverending thirst for conspicuous consumption. This is because the Boomers are statistically rather unspectacular at managing money themselves. These inherited unsustainable attitudes may have finally begun to catch up - and it’s going to hurt young adults and the millenial generation to an even more severe degree than adults. Baby Boomers may mismanage their own retirement funds and stock portfolios, but we by and large have never had any. We’re new and doe-eyed on the job market and with your assistance, blessing, and guidance we are being squeezed at the same time you are - but it’s not our fault.
And that’s not fair. That my generation, record numbers of us with college degrees, finds it nearly universally impossible to achieve the benefits that boomers are relishing. Any society in which Mom and Dad act to keep your hand out of a cookie jar you help fill is a society in need of a slap to the collective forehead. The cynic in me says we should never expect people to give up power - that it often is only taken by hook or by crook.
Dark thoughts ensue. Revolution, bloodshed, struggle. We can’t do that to our parents and grandparents, though! Not unless there is an outright civil war, which doesn't seem likely anytime soon. Indeed, this difficulty my generation faces is universal - the need to tell our predecessors that they were wrong. It’s unnerving that so few of my peers’ voices are silent on the subject still. We just don’t know all the words yet, but I think new letters and words will emerge for us in the next few years as we start to feel their effects. Starting with a big D already underway.
We know that, adjusted for inflation, wages have been stagnant for years. But Boomers by and large have not taught my generation how to manage money, and how to avoid constantly cashing in our neverending thirst for conspicuous consumption. This is because the Boomers are statistically rather unspectacular at managing money themselves. These inherited unsustainable attitudes may have finally begun to catch up - and it’s going to hurt young adults and the millenial generation to an even more severe degree than adults. Baby Boomers may mismanage their own retirement funds and stock portfolios, but we by and large have never had any. We’re new and doe-eyed on the job market and with your assistance, blessing, and guidance we are being squeezed at the same time you are - but it’s not our fault.
And that’s not fair. That my generation, record numbers of us with college degrees, finds it nearly universally impossible to achieve the benefits that boomers are relishing. Any society in which Mom and Dad act to keep your hand out of a cookie jar you help fill is a society in need of a slap to the collective forehead. The cynic in me says we should never expect people to give up power - that it often is only taken by hook or by crook.
Dark thoughts ensue. Revolution, bloodshed, struggle. We can’t do that to our parents and grandparents, though! Not unless there is an outright civil war, which doesn't seem likely anytime soon. Indeed, this difficulty my generation faces is universal - the need to tell our predecessors that they were wrong. It’s unnerving that so few of my peers’ voices are silent on the subject still. We just don’t know all the words yet, but I think new letters and words will emerge for us in the next few years as we start to feel their effects. Starting with a big D already underway.