Reality Bites

The other day, my Mom who counts herself as one of my blog fans, remarked to me that the tenor of my posts seems to come off lately as angry. It was a bit startling to hear this, but after I pondered it for a bit, I came to think she was well, hate myself for saying this...right.
Today, after taking a cursory look at MSN, checking the headlines, stocks, French Open scores, I found the following article, entitled, "The Great Recession Wrecked Generation X" that I am posting a link to here:

http://money.msn.com/now/post.aspx?post=fc1c9c39-1c4a-4223-9ecb-2512551ec4b2

While I know a lot of people, including many in Gen X jib at the title of  'Generation X' or say,
"Oh, I don't buy into that", or "That doesn't apply to me", in my case, I think, this article encapsulates a lot of the anger that seems to be overflowing into my writing lately. Where the author, Jason Notte talks about Gen X since the Great Recession (Depression) being just older, and more tired, but certainly not any better off financially, I was mentally high-fiving him.

Finally, someone coming out and saying it. There were plenty of meglomaniacal posts in the 'Comments' sections from those who say that they weren't affected at all, let's face it there are always exceptions to any rule, but I think many of us, when we matriculated and entered the work force expected so much better. In my case, a crushing workload, which thanks to new cost-cutting measures, I can't even get overtime for, or health benefits, or vacation. When November rolls around, I will have hit the 2 year mark of the longest probationary period in history! And before you say, well you could leave and look for something better. Something better these days usually means another assignment and I already have one of those, a permanent job today is like trying to hit the motherlode in the Yukon!  Because let's face it, the Boomers aren't retiring because they can't afford to, the Millenials want your job too and they are younger, cuter and more wired in, so where does that leave me?  Really tired mostly, but in the more dire moments, staring into a gaping abyss of hopelessness. Believe it or not I used to be such an idealist; I go back and read the journal entries around the time of my high school graduation and my early days of college and there is such an optimistic, hopeful tone, I'm so excited by the possibilities of life, the feeling that everything is just out there waiting to be conquered. Truthfully, I almost can't read them anymore, knowing what I know now.

The thing is, I haven't given up...I care. I've tried to enact change politically, tried to believe that my congressman really does read the emails I send, that the Florida Governor, who I've ardently supported because he promised to bring employment to our state, will keep his promises. I vote even in the smallest elections, I write, I work hard, I pray.

They call us the slacker generation, but I know many of us are doing the same, working hard, voting, praying, hoping beyond hope, beyond what the experts tell us, beyond what the politicians don't do, beyond the promises they don't keep, that somehow we will beat the odds....

The Preferred Risk- Generation Y

One of the other galvanizing forces that compelled me to begin writing and sharing my thoughts as a member of a disenfranchised generation was an article that appeared on the MSN Money section a few
days ago http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/43976881/ns/business-eye_on_the_economy/.

In this piece the writer, a Ms. Anika Anand giddily argues that Generation Y is the best chance the USA has to 'fix' this depressed economy. Yes, I take a liberty in stating depressed but I have always heard that an economy is in recession when your neighbor is unemployed and that depression is when you yourself are unemployed.  Getting back to this piece, which it should be mentioned, is a money article that most definitely falls under the heading of an op ed piece; for me it was another of those moments when my blood pressure soared and my hackles rose for once again it was seemingly another opportunity for the press to take an underhanded swipe at X'ers. On the surface this article is a masterpiece of rose-tinted optimism that any good ol' red-blooded patriotic American loves to read, the artistically tatooed hipster riding in on his eco-friendly Prius (steed) to save Mom, Apple Pie and Chevrolet (Volt of course). But if you delve deeper into the theory, far more sinister for me was the feeling that once again all the efforts of the previous generation, my generation, were forgotten and worse than that, that they failed to learn from us.

Wasn't our generation with its dot-com startups and killer apps the original modern day entrepeneurs? Where would Gen Y be if not for the efforts of X'ers like Bill Gates and Steve Jobs? There would be no Mark Zuckerberg -Winklevoss Feud to litigate if they hadn't had the shoulders of Sergey Brin and Larry Page to stand on. Who needs Jack Dorsey, et al (Twitter) if Jerry Yang and David Filo hadn't paved the road with Yahoo back at the inception of Internet 2.0?

To read Ms. Anand's piece is to flirt with the idea that since no one else, we're looking at you Generation X, because the Boomers have all retired to Florida to spend their social security and pensions drinking Ensure poolside, is willing to take up the task. (Sigh), "We'll have to shoulder that burden and save the world". I can't help thinking it calls to mind the world-weariness of Bruce Willis'
admonishing of the crew in Armageddon, "The United States Government just asked us to save the world. Anybody want to say no?"

She further goes on to cite a Kool-Aid drinking journalist tipsy on the promise of the messiah generation coming into it's own,

"This is a generation of serial entrepreneurs," said Donna Fenn, a journalist who wrote "Upstarts!," one of the first books identifying the Gen Y entrepreneur trend. "A lot of them start businesses in their 20s and many of them don't think that their first business will be their last. They're addicted to creating things, to the startup phase. By the time they reach their 40s, they will have started three, four or five companies."
She said the so-called Millennial generation is inclined toward entrepreneurship partly because they saw their parents lose corporate jobs in the downsizing movement of the era. They also witnessed a wave of ugly corporate scandals followed by the meltdown of the financial industry. The result is that they tend to have a lot less faith in large institutions like companies or government, she said.

And yet in a stunning but not wholly unexpected piece of journalistic hypocrisy, we are told that these same millenials who 'tend to have a lot less faith in large institutions like companies or government' are apparently looking to the who else but the federal government and corporation venture capitalists to fund these civilization-saving initiatives.

Aaron Smith, co-founder of another young advocacy organization Young Invincibles, is also working with Gerber on the Youth Entrepreneurship Act. He acknowledges that now is a tough time to get anything passed in Congress, but contends that a bill helping young entrepreneurs would give the government a good return on investment.

"Increasingly, Congress is looking at ways to create jobs at a relatively low cost," the 29-year-old said. "One of the interesting things about young people is that their barrier to starting a business is small, in terms of the monetary amount. We're talking only a few thousand dollars."
Matthew Segal, founder of a nonprofit that promotes entrepreneurs under 30, has a slightly different focus. He thinks getting consumers to support young business startups should complement any potential legislation.

Have none of these people taken a good hard look at the government, the Federal Reserve, the goings on the US Treasury? Have not the 1st Stimulus, the 2nd Stimulus, TARP, bailouts of supposedly too-large-to fail AIG, GM, Chrysler, Cash for Clunkers, all been cloaked in failure?  What about our recent politically charged debt ceiling debacle, our S & P credit downgrade?  Uncle Sam has his pocket linings hanging out, we're writing IOU's for debt we'll probably never be repay at the rate we are spending and China is knocking on our door with their hands out.

For that matter, does no one remember the dot-com bubble burst in 2001-2002? As a matter fact, yes. And I'll tell you who...the Gen X dot.com startups who were millionaires one day and wiped out the next. The people who woke up at Enron in the fall of 2001 to find the 'smartest guys in the room' had just gambled away their jobs, insurance, retirement and their hope. We learned our lessons well that day, trust no one...and most especially the government.

So before you go out there Gen Y, shaking your heads at us, bent on doing what we slackers, abdicators of our country's financial future seemingly are NOT doing, you might do well to learn from us. We have our reasons for being quiet and electing to not rush in to save what might not be sound in the first place.