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Being a Xer myself and seeing the changes beginning almost 30 years ago I agree with you completely. I hear and see my neighbors and friends suffering terrible financial problems and can't help but feel the American dream was taken away from us long before we even got into the job market. My parents had it made. They had pensions, a good retirement package and job security. They had big houses, cars, boats and spent money lavishly. Those opportunities are gone. Many of us are now running around trying to make some sense of it all.
I agree. All of my college friends and more, their parents did far better. I think back to even all the vacations I got as a kid and presents, and dont know anyone who could afford that now. No way. I agree with you the American Dream was taken away and its basically over. But the sad thing they are still feeding the people the line, get the college education and its automatic. How many find out its not?
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I recall in the 90's seeing the movie Clerks while at college. It reminded me of the part time at a local Rite Aid pharmacy I had every afternoon for four years during college. I kept thinking at the time that this lousy job was only temporary. As soon as I graduated I could find a real position in the real world. In the evening I filled my head full of studying, Grunge and my wife to be. I never thought at my age I would have to go back and work a job like the one I had during college, especially after earning two bachelors degrees and masters in education. There are simply too many people looking for jobs and not enough to go around. We began outsourcing jobs before I got out of high school and it is strangling the American worker. We are now at a cross roads. We can all either stand up and make changes or live with our parents and inherit their wealth after they die.
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I blame things on outsourcing too. I believe the powers that be seemed to make every choice out of greed and destroying America, not caring that anyone in the long run could even afford their products. I understand being educated and working bad job. Still remember when I got laid off of grant based teaching job, having to go work at Arby's and how horrible that was. I got so deseprate for work, like at factories and such, I started hiding my teaching credentials after I got turned down at one factory that would have been a good job, becauase {well you will just move on]. No one prepared me for how hard things would be and I did things like work 60-70 hours a week, piecing together crappy minimum wage jobs just to stay afloat before I was disabled.
If you take the position that x'ers and y'ers are living in a different world than previous generations....the cirriculum should be different to account for it. There are more technical skills in some classes, but who needs biology, french, chemistry, etc.
In the old paradigm of dad goes to work, mom stays home, I guess you could say you're giving people a well rounded education...they should take a few years of foreign language, some science, math, history, etc.
But now, its an incredible waste of time IMO. The cirriculum is too compartmentalized. Taking chinese should be paired with a class on "China in the 21st century". So, you see the bigger picture of why chinese may be important in the 21st century. Similar with spanish or other languages.[
There should be at least a few classes on living standards, renting vs buying a home, and the differences across the country. The old paradigm of buy a home and live in it for 30 years isn't applicable anymore in many parts of the country. Why not give students a better set of choices....before they may get pressured from lenders or the national association of realtors to buy a home they can't afford?
Wow I agree with you here.
Actually the schools are FAILING miserably in teaching students practical skills for living.
Not every parent is taking the time to teach it either.
I also think high school should not be required of everyone and there should be different opportunities, vo-ed training etc.
You could add that back in, say, 1950, a family of 4 or 5 was satisfied to live in a 1,200 square foot home, with one automobile, one telephone, and one television--if they were lucky. That could easily be supported by one full-time wage earner in the family. Today, that family would expect to have a 2,500 square foot home (or bigger), a car for every family member over 16 (or more), other toys (like boats, ATV's, etc.), innumerable electronic gadgets, computers and cell phones for everybody, multi-week vacations to expensive cross-country or even international destinations--PLUS a plethora of publicly-funded services that those 1950 folks would never of dreamed about demanding. Simply put, we have become fat, greedy, self-indulgent sloths who have lived far beyond our financial, environmental, and even emotional means. That behavior can only land us in one place--where we get a massive and painful slapdown back to reality; reality probably being something like that lifestyle of 1950. And that is what we are about to get.
Not all Americans are rich folks in the suburbs. Ive never lived beyond my means, always lived in an under 1000 sq foot apartment as an adult.
Things were YES, simpler in the 50s, but one could afford a house, a car, and food without too much trouble if one was willing to work hard. Now that is not even guaranteed.
Most people can still afford a house, a car and food if they separate needs from wants. Most people's lives are a product of their choices. Some people manage to build a nice life on a limited income; other people can't make it work on triple that. Some people do need help, but it's not society's fault that many make choices that are self-limiting.
Yes, it's harder now, because we want more, while our needs remain the same. Schools aren't parents, and common sense isn't part of the curriculum. But the thing that should really be taught is personal responsibility.
Even a nodding aquaintance with the history of Russia in just the 20th century puts the current minor downturn in the US economy in perspective: Are you in danger of starving or freezing to death? How many enemy tanks have you seen lately? How many of your friends have been rounded up and shipped off to a GULAG?
America seems to be degenerating into a nation of over-fed whiners.
America seems to be degenerating into a nation of over-fed whiners.
It pretty much seems that way. Its almost as if they believe complaining will solve their problems. Perhaps this is due to it working with their parents as kids? I don't know.
The real question is how do we get clean of all this. Can we ever go back to the time where it took only one person to support a family and the second salary was the icing on the cake? My parent's generaton never had it so good way back when.
The answer is yes we can. But we must start using common sense when it comes to financial expectations. Just think of all of the things that the average person pays for in their monthly bills that didn't even exist a generation ago, let alone two or three generations ago. Do we really need all these things? The answer should be NO, especially if we can't afford them. There are way too many people with 100k student loan debt towards an education that will not provide them a job that will pay this debt off in a reasonable amount of time. We have had several generations that have been raised on the fallacy that we can borrow our way to financial stability. This recession has showed us that living with a heavy debt burden can lead to financial calamity. The real question is... Are we willing to start living within our means?
Even a nodding aquaintance with the history of Russia in just the 20th century puts the current minor downturn in the US economy in perspective: Are you in danger of starving or freezing to death? How many enemy tanks have you seen lately? How many of your friends have been rounded up and shipped off to a GULAG?
America seems to be degenerating into a nation of over-fed whiners.
Over-indebted whiners. They're only in danger of starving or freezing if the credit card companies stop lending them money that they will never, ever be able to pay back.
Read Dmitry Orlov's Inventing Collapse -- he's a Russian immigrant to the US who lived through Russia's collapse and has some really interesting observations and analysis on what America's collapse will look like in comparison.
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Originally Posted by WheredoIlive?
Wow I agree with you here.
Actually the schools are FAILING miserably in teaching students practical skills for living.
Not every parent is taking the time to teach it either.
I also think high school should not be required of everyone and there should be different opportunities, vo-ed training etc.
Upper level USA schools are the 'crummy' icing on the top of a failed system from K-12.
School / edu is the next thing to be outsourced, and for good cause, they've failed.
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Originally Posted by Stac2007 View Post
The real question is how do we get clean of all this. Can we ever go back to the time where it took only one person to support a family and the second salary was the icing on the cake? My parent's generaton never had it so good way back when.
Yes, it is still very possible to be a single income 'american dream', I have friends (Gen X & Y), and some of my kids... doing it. But... not in the conventional way. New paradigm, must be very 'stealth' and take big risks / responsibilities. (not so different than a few generations ago, but moving at a lot faster pace, and agility.) I think it will be a challenge due to conflicting 'values'. Honesty, sharing, and compassion don't seem to be carrying the load anymore. Having just worked for 2 very bitter gen x'ers, it's 'everyone for themselves'.
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