The Shadow of the Boom.
We are still living in the shadow of the Baby Boom, and the generation of Boomers. Rapidly approaching 30, I hover somewhere on the cusp between Generation X, and Gen Y. At one point we were called the MTV generation; back when it was actually relevant because MTV played music, and it was the soundtrack of our shared youth. We call ourselves ‘young’, partly because we are facing (and trying to deny) the inevitable progression of years, and partly because we will always be perceived as ‘young’uns’ by the Boomers who still are the largest segment of the population. But part of it is also because our situation will not let us grow into full adulthood. By the time they had reached our age, the baby boomers had already created a revolution (of sorts), settled into careers, started families and homes, and were working on building the ‘American Dream’. (Which during the Regan era meant becoming as upwardly mobile as possible.) And here we are, having been raised on this ideal, having grown up being told ‘Chase your dreams – anything is possible’; to finding that it is taking everything we have just to keep pace on the treadmill our society has become. Many of us are still dependant on our parents, not because we wish to be, but because the cost of living has become much higher than our earning potential. When we find work, (or if we find it,) the 30-40k a year we are offered is hopefully enough to pay for food, rent, and utilities, and if we are lucky, it will cover either the Student Loan payment or the Credit Card bill, but never both. Many of us were told in our youth ‘Go to University, it is the doorway to a brighter future’; only to find that now we have become servants of the debt we used to pay tuition – and the well paying jobs that a degree was meant to guarantee have never materialized. It has become a vicious cycle of debt, even without considering the possible calamities of being out of work, getting sick and subsequent medical expenses, getting into an accident, or creating offspring of our own. Most of us cannot even dream of owning our own homes at this point, short of winning the lottery, becoming a TV star, developing the next energy drink, or something equally as far fetched. Oh, sure, we can get a loan for a house if we spiral deeper into the debt vortex, becoming indentured servants for the rest of our lives; but that is not what we were promised, nor is it something we should tolerate.
We want to work for our own future, the future of this country, and the future of the planet.
The children of what was the ‘richest nation on the planet’ have now become reduced to the level of Serfs…. Having to give up any ideals and creativity of their own to spend all of their efforts in simply trying to maintain food and shelter…ever fearful that the ‘creditors’ of their servitude will take away what little they have.
The Boomers created the ‘use now, pay later’ mentality and built a society upon it. They never stopped to think how things could be paid back once all of the resources were used.
Is it any wonder many feel that their parents are the only place they can turn when the going gets tough?
I studied hard to earn a Master’s degree; hoping that I could use it to benefit society. Now, I have a low-level management job in an unrelated field, but still a ‘good job’ by the standards of today’s economy. Even living as frugally as possible, it is not quite enough to cover rent, food, and utilities for my wife and I – I certainly cannot afford medical insurance for her, nor any expenses for children should they come along. Yet the idea of waiting to start a family until we are in our 40’s is very disheartening. This society has reached a place where most of its members with the potential to create are struggling just to prevent themselves from falling deeper into a hole. The thought of actually building something for the future has become no more than a pipe dream in our generation’s eyes. Not because they do not want to build and give back to this country, but because we are given no choice.
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