Almost a century ago we had the Lost Generation; now, early in the millennium, a morally indifferent oligarchy whose ascendancy has culminated in financial catastrophe has given us what might be called the Cheated Generation. (With the collapse of the economy, their parents are being cheated too, but at least they had something better first.) The voice of that generation is heard compellingly in a recent post by Nicholas Cargo on the Scholars and Rogues blog, reproduced here with permission.
"The private sector's job," writes "Mr. Cargo," "is to take everything it can grab through your labor, your rigged retirement plan and whatever money the government can borrow on your signature to keep them in mink; and kick your ass out on the street the second you're no longer–wait for it–tangibly and materially useful, immediately.
"The best way I can put it based on my own personal experiences is that I have been cleverly brainwashed into believing that I am a waste of money and I deserve whatever scraps the higher-ups are willing to fart down onto me, and not a scrap more, as I bust my ass and endlessly, ultimately fruitlessly, clamor with the rest for their assurance that I am indeed worthy–not just of a paycheck–but of a good living. I get backed into a corner, it's my own fault for not being someone else. My job goes overseas and I starve, I must not have been trying hard enough. My CEO runs off with my retirement and leaves me holding a portfolio full of worthless stock, well, sucks to be me. That's Wall Street for ya. That's what you get for trying to play that big, bad market casino like the big guns forced you to do.
"As a child of divorce, I was conditioned to believe that I was in the way, physically, emotionally and especially financially. As a member of today's workforce, I feel those attitudes being foisted upon me tenfold. I am a fish, in an ever-shrinking pond, and the guy draining it is telling me I'm an asshole for suffocating."
This piece is saying that our problems are not just economic, and they didn't start when Lehman Brothers went bust. There's a psychic malaise that needs curing, and there's no time to lose.
