Our Generation

Background:

This week, I found out that at least three, and likely six, of my guitar students are quitting in two weeks. This is difficult, as that represents a significant chunk of my income. And because I no longer work for a music store (GuitarZone being another victim of the recession) I have little ability to quickly fill the lost time slots.

Furthermore, I was hoping that I would get a position at another company that I applied for, and I found out this morning that I'm not getting it.

So here I am, reduced to under twenty hours of work per week starting in September, and I'm hitting the pavement everyday looking for new employment. Unfortunately, like so many of you, it just isn't happening.

Here's where I have a problem with this, and here's where we all should have a problem with this: I did everything right.

I ran my own enterprise, so that I could work thirty hours a week while going to school. I worked hard, and have a degree now. When I graduated from high school, I was told that going to college would ensure my future.

Look at that future now. Here we are, after four hard years, and I know more college graduates waiting tables than I know who have jobs. Our entire generation, pushed to the brink, while the greed-mongers of the prior generations still maintain control.

No, I'm not picking on everybody over the age of thirty here. I'm picking on the ones who, for the last twenty years, saw risk as surmountable by duping the poor into thinking they could afford more. I'm picking on the ones who, for the last twenty years, lived a lifestyle of decadent opulence. I'm picking on the ones who, for the last twenty years, saw outsourcing as a solution, and as a result, forced the value of a college education down, while telling us all, "you can't get anywhere without a college degree."

Well, because that generation sent all those great jobs that you "didn't need a degree to do" overseas, now I'm competing in a tight job market with hordes of good students. It used to be that the schooling would set you apart. Not anymore.

I truly believe that once we, our generation, gets into power, after having worked ourselves to bone during this recession, we are going to push things in a different direction. And yes, it will be a scary direction for those who let this happen.

If I were a middle aged politician right now, here is what I would be thinking (or should be thinking): here we have a bunch of constituents (18-30 year olds) who did everything as we told them. They went to school in bigger numbers, and now they have huge student loan debts that they can't afford, because of the recession that we accidentally helped create. If we don't help them, they are going to turn on us.

Funny, didn't the party in power push the youth vote? How are those same youth going to react to their situation stagnating, or getting worse? Think that same party will get as many youth voters next time?

You see, I'm mad because I did everything right. My generation did everything right. And here's the point: if we don't see some help from politicians, if not some outright concessions, our generation isn't going to like them anymore. Our generation won't want to play nice when we are in power, and they become the aging population. And honestly, THAT should scare every person in this country.