Boomerang Kids

[spudbuddy]

<p>I just watched a documentary this morning on boomerang kids. It made me furious. For almost an hour, I heard pundits and experts dance so carefully, so politically correctly, around the issues - without ever breathing a word about the real truth.
Two things: po' folks don't have boomerangs. Those kids (and there are many) know that their only hope in hell for a decent chance at survival as young adults is to get out there and kick the can until it coughs up the cost of "living." Period.
Second thing: The Boomer generation inherited, in the 1960's and 1970's - a relatively (still) healthy economy, in which they did much the same as their parents had done before them. They were raised to treasure independence above all else, and at all cost - and were rewarded for their efforts and hard work - by independence. (Also known as, um....freedom.)
Oops. Seems everyone in that documentary forgot (or never knew) the obvious truth. The boomer generation applied themselves and gathered up some wealth - in the normal way, under relatively normal conditions, by becoming educated and acquiring gainful employment that was both substantial and sustainable! (imagine that.)
This is no longer the case. Let me repeat that. This is no longer the case.
Living wage jobs sustainable in the long term (upon which to build an idependent existence) seem to have vanished like Wall Street pension investments.
The outcome?
Boomer kids, yuppie puppies, ricocheting off the walls and out of the Hallowed Halls and straight back into the nest....are doing only what comes natural: appropriating some of that wealth acquired a generation before - that no longer exists for the new generation come of age. Why? Because they're lazy babies? (some are - indeed.) Most......aren't.
So what gives?
The point I'm about to arrive at. </p>

<p>That wealth that should be there for a new generation to tap into, and work hard for....has shrunk (some call it a ...........recession?) Ha!
Check out the income gains of the top 1%, then the next 9%....you'll get the picture.
We've educated ourselves to death...for what? Debt, that's what. The returns?
(psst. big lie.......there never was enough to go around.)
Sit back and watch 15 million contestants compete for a half-million prizes. There are...a lot of losers. Las Vegas has more winners, folks. Welcome to the perfect casino.
Perfect, if you own it. Not so good if you don't.
Boomerangs don't need to drop in at the good old homestead.
They need to visit their nation's Capitol, en masse, in legions, armed to the teeth with the truth. Come on kids. You can do it. Rock the free world. It's past time.</p>

[ellemenope]

<p>Visit the Capitol and ask for what, exactly?</p>

[spudbuddy]

<p>Well, if you need to ask, maybe you need to research a little economic history?
The world changed over the past 3 decades, and the future of the next few generations of kids is mortgaged to the hilt. Do you think our “new world order” is sustainable?
By the way - the kids didn’t ask for this. (They just mostly followed orders.) This mess isn’t their creation. It belongs to the people we handed over the reins to. Appears we’re headed for the ditch.</p>

[ellemenope]

<p>I can see the problems…don’t need to do economic research for that, lol. </p>

<p>I’m asking in all seriousness–what specifically do you think our politicians should do, because if I knew that, I would vote for the guys who would do that! I have two kids, so I have a keen interest in making the world a good place for them.</p>

[jym626]

<p>OP- Perhaps you should read the thread about the kid in the basement. Flip side of the same coin.</p>

[IthacaKid]

<p>I’m visiting the Capitol to intern, not to protest the system that works for me. TFM.</p>

[phantasmagoric]

<p>Very interesting - do you know the name of the documentary? It’d be good to see.</p>

<p>A few points:</p>

<ol>
<li><p>Why do you think that the “Living wage jobs sustainable in the long term” have vanished? It could very well be a simple by-product of the recession, and isn’t indicative of anything long-term. Or is it?</p></li>
<li><p>I’m curious about the relationship between ‘Generation Y’ (echo boomers and such) and the supposed ‘Great Divergence’ in the economy, beginning in the late 70s/early 80s in which the top earners began to acquire a disproportionately high share of the wealth. From 1985 to 2005, something like 80% of the capital gains were captured by the top 1%. Not coincidentally, this is when the term ‘yuppie’ started.</p></li>
<li><p>You’re urging the boomerangs to march on Washington, but that’s more or less what the Occupy Wall Street movement is doing. It’s more grassroots/widespread, and perhaps a little too focused on Wall Street rather than income inequality in general. But it does seem like the boomerangs are trying to reclaim their position in society (that is, the position that previous generations have enjoyed).</p></li>
<li><p>The effect on higher education should be especially interesting. Higher education went through a ‘renaissance’ of sorts in the 60s and 70s, during which universities sprang up in droves and funding was generous. This was probably the result of the first baby boom. It doesn’t appear that this is happening again, but I could be wrong. Instead, the # colleges is staying constant while the competition for them is increasing. With the state of higher education funding (esp. from governments), it’s doubtful that a second renaissance is likely to occur, which would explain why top colleges in particular have gotten ridiculously competitive (ripple effect).</p></li>
</ol>

<p>In short, the boomerang generation seems pretty much screwed. They’re in comparable numbers (echo boom) but don’t have anywhere near the growth in opportunities (education, jobs) that previous generations did. And the recession + the relative failure of the OWS movement = no change in the status quo anytime soon.</p>

[rodney]

<p>There is a blurb on p A22 of the NYTimes today that I can’t seem to find online discussing this exact subject…</p>

[BCEagle91]

<br>

<p>Two things: po’ folks don’t have boomerangs. Those kids (and there
are many) know that their only hope in hell for a decent chance at
survival as young adults is to get out there and kick the can until
it coughs up the cost of “living.” Period.</p>

<br>

<p>Do you speak for all poor folks? My wife grew up in third-world poor.
She lived at home until she found work in a first-world country. She
still stayed at home when she visited and sent money back to her
mother to provide support.</p>

<br>

<p>Second thing: The Boomer generation inherited, in the 1960’s and
1970’s - a relatively (still) healthy economy, in which they did
much the same as their parents had done before them. They were
raised to treasure independence above all else, and at all cost -
and were rewarded for their efforts and hard work - by
independence. (Also known as, um…freedom.)</p>

<br>

<p>1971 - 1982 is similar to 2009 - 2012 in terms of U-6 unemployment.</p>

<p><a href=“http://trendlines.ca/TrendlinesUSAU6RealUnemploymentRateChart120203.png[/url]”>http://trendlines.ca/TrendlinesUSAU6RealUnemploymentRateChart120203.png&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Interest rates in the 1970s hit 14.14% in 1981 rising from 2% in 1950.</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/Long-Term.png[/url]”>http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/Long-Term.png&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Independence is not a fast, universal desire in all cultures.</p>

<br>

<p>Oops. Seems everyone in that documentary forgot (or never knew) the
obvious truth. The boomer generation applied themselves and gathered
up some wealth - in the normal way, under relatively normal
conditions, by becoming educated and acquiring gainful employment
that was both substantial and sustainable! (imagine that.)</p>

<br>

<p>Not sure about the educated part. You could make quite a good living
without an education back then. The equation shifted around late 70s
to early 80s.</p>

<br>

<p>This is no longer the case. Let me repeat that. This is no longer
the case. Living wage jobs sustainable in the long term (upon which
to build an idependent existence) seem to have vanished like Wall
Street pension investments.</p>

<br>

<p>I can drive down to Cambridge or Boston and see lots of young adults
with living wage jobs and independence. They have not vanished. Even
back in the day, they did not pop up upon graduation. You might have
had to work bagging groceries for a while before finding a job
suitable for your major.</p>

<br>

<p>The outcome? Boomer kids, yuppie puppies, ricocheting off the walls
and out of the Hallowed Halls and straight back into the nest…are
doing only what comes natural: appropriating some of that wealth
acquired a generation before - that no longer exists for the new
generation come of age. Why? Because they’re lazy babies? (some are

• indeed.) Most…aren’t.</p>

<br>

<p>What’s wrong with coming back?</p>

<br>

<p>So what gives? The point I’m about to arrive at.</p>

<p>That wealth that should be there for a new generation to tap into, and
work hard for…has shrunk (some call it a …recession?) Ha!</p>

<p>Check out the income gains of the top 1%, then the next 9%…you’ll
get the picture.</p>

<p>We’ve educated ourselves to death…for what? Debt, that’s what. The
returns? (psst. big lie…there never was enough to go around.)</p>

<br>

<p>We’re competing with educated people from other countries. More labor
supply = less labor demand.</p>

<br>

<p>Sit back and watch 15 million contestants compete for a half-million
prizes. There are…a lot of losers. Las Vegas has more winners,
folks. Welcome to the perfect casino.</p>

<br>

<p>We aren’t competing that well with the rest of the world but there are
areas that are doing fairly well.</p>

<br>

<p>Perfect, if you own it. Not so good if you don’t. Boomerangs don’t
need to drop in at the good old homestead. They need to visit their
nation’s Capitol, en masse, in legions, armed to the teeth with the
truth. Come on kids. You can do it. Rock the free world. It’s past
time.</p>

<br>

<p>What are you going to do in Washington? What piece of magic will allow
you to compete with your counterparts in India, China, Brazil, Poland,
Germany, Finland and Singapore?</p>

[spudbuddy]

<p>Phantasmagoric…the name of the doc is “Boomerang Generation.”
Living wage jobs in the long term: our recession lingers, does it not? How many “jobless recoveries” will keep coming down the assembly line (seeing as most other assembly lines have departed the country.) Politicians, media, and corporate-speak keep telling us things that the numbers do not bear out.
Did millions of boomers raise weak-spined failures to launch? Some did - most didn’t. Something else is going on.
Peak Oil has arrived. Simply put, in an oil-based global economy, as supply does not increase, while demand does, this causes retraction in growth. In economic terms, a retraction creates recession. Oil is used in much manufacures (the feedstock for plastic) but the big killer is transportation. Global trade is the giant straw sucking up a non-renewable resource. Obviously on a global basis, we need to regionalize, and we’re not.
Professor Richard Wolff outlines quite nicely what has happened to American wages in the past four decades. Their purchasing power has flatlined, while inflation has continued to rise. (Enter unprecedented debt levels to make up the difference.)
Generations X, Y and Millenial have all born the brunt of this. They represent the most educated evolution of our population in history - yet their accumulation of real wealth does not reflect this.
In 1973 and 1979 we had two oil shocks (harbingers of what was to come.) Two Reagan administrations set in place the beginning of financial deregulation, de-industrialization - and our media firmly established a great myth…that the American dream was all about living high off the hog…not just living comfortably, realistically, sustainably.</p>

<p>Your third point: I work in higher education. I see how hard the kids work. Shouting up at financial castle walls only goes so far. Martin Luther King marched on Washington in 1964, and look what happened. Educationistas have spread out a nice banquet…a growth industry (whose profits continue on a very healthy upward incline) while the payoff from investment (degrees earned) continues to languish. Is the reason just bad choices of study? Poor work habits? My bartender, cab driver, house cleaner and garbage collector have never been so well-educated. (Meanwhile, my meagre education landed me a job in a university library…long ago.)</p>

<p>Educational debt has now surpassed credit card debt (over a trillion) and keeps climbing.
This debt would not be so alarming if there were a decent return on investment - but there isn’t. Studying the real job market, we know that the greatest demand in future is in job growth that doesn’t even require higher education (in real numbers) yet we educate growing numbers of our youth…for what, exactly? Some vague idea that this will lead to middle class income. The problem is…it isn’t.</p>

<p>Ellemenope…I would urge any parent of any high school student to be very wary of higher educational costs - and if a chosen career path means a high level of debt, consider the consequences: a student loan is not dischargeable…it cannot be forgiven or foreclosed. The cheapest way one can be reasonably educated is not a bad choice. Hard skills…community college - any alternatives that do not run up debt levels. Long-gone are the days when we can automatically assume that a degree just pays off. It doesn’t, necessarily.
The definition of a “boomerang” is one who returns home - not one who never left in the first place. Boomerangs aren’t always, but more and more…are educated. (Well-educated?) Up for debate, I suppose.
In my generation we left, never to return. For many, education had nothing to do with it. A healthy job market was the real reason. As would be the case today, if it still existed. </p>

<p>Conventionally, we have always believed a higher education is the crowning factor in a good life. A good mind is a terrible thing to waste, and not develop. Agreed.
But something else is going on that twists this all out of shape. The numbers do not lie. They’re telling us something that the ringleaders running the show are not telling us.
We need to pay attention…for the sake of the kids - for the sake of our future.</p>

[BCEagle91]

<br>

<p>Living wage jobs in the long term: our recession lingers, does it
not? How many “jobless recoveries” will keep coming down the
assembly line (seeing as most other assembly lines have departed the
country.)</p>

<br>

<p>“Manufacturing employment continued to trend up in May (+12,000)
following a similar change in April (+9,000).”</p>

<p>[Employment</a> Situation Summary](<a href=“http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.nr0.htm]Employment”>Employment Situation Summary - 2024 M01 Results)</p>

<p>Manufacturing is coming back to the US though it would be easier if
we had the people with skills to support it.</p>

<br>

<p>Politicians, media, and corporate-speak keep telling us things that
the numbers do not bear out. Did millions of boomers raise
weak-spined failures to launch? Some did - most didn’t. Something
else is going on.</p>

<br>

<p>Global competitiveness is showing how weak the US educational system
is.</p>

<br>

<p>Peak Oil has arrived. Simply put, in an oil-based global economy, as
supply does not increase, while demand does, this causes retraction
in growth. In economic terms, a retraction creates recession. Oil is
used in much manufacures (the feedstock for plastic) but the big
killer is transportation. Global trade is the giant straw sucking up
a non-renewable resource. Obviously on a global basis, we need to
regionalize, and we’re not.</p>

<br>

<p>West Texas Intermediate Crude prices collapsed in May. From $106 to
$82.50 in a month. Breathtaking move. The amount of supply combined
with demand destruction foretold the big drop late last year.</p>

<p>Natural Gas prices have collapsed from $15 to $2.50 as huge supplies
have come on line. Supplies are so plentiful that producers have had
to cut back as they were running out of storage.</p>

<p>We have wind farms coming on line to provide electricity along with
solar farms.</p>

<p>The US is near oil self-sufficiency and may achieve it in the next few
years. The US will likely be a net exporter on natural gas and may be
a net exporter of oil in the future. How’s that for a manufacturing
advantage?</p>

<br>

<p>Their purchasing power has flatlined, while inflation has continued to
rise. (Enter unprecedented debt levels to make up the difference.)</p>

<br>

<p>We’ve had deflation in some things and inflation in others. The
deflation in wages is due to an increase in labor supply. The
inflation is due to central banks running the spigots wide open,
governments running the spigots wide open and new middle-classes in
emerging market countries that want the stuff that we have.</p>

<br>

<p>Generations X, Y and Millenial have all born the brunt of this. They
represent the most educated evolution of our population in history -
yet their accumulation of real wealth does not reflect this. In
1973 and 1979 we had two oil shocks (harbingers of what was to
come.) Two Reagan administrations set in place the beginning of
financial deregulation, de-industrialization - and our media firmly
established a great myth…that the American dream was all about
living high off the hog…not just living comfortably,
realistically, sustainably.</p>

<br>

<p>Education is something that you buy that may or may not make you a
living. I have a Boomer friend that owns a drywall company. He
typically has from ten to twenty employees depending on the economy
and he does the sales and works construction sites with his employees.
He’s doing fairly well. Education may be a path to a career but it
doesn’t guarantee that. What you have to learn is what you can do for
someone else that will pay you well. That may mean serving people at a
restaurant, owning a laundramat or a cleaning service or detailing
cars. You don’t need a college degree for those jobs.</p>

<br>

<p>Your third point: I work in higher education. I see how hard the
kids work. Shouting up at financial castle walls only goes so
far. Martin Luther King marched on Washington in 1964, and look what
happened. Educationistas have spread out a nice banquet…a growth
industry (whose profits continue on a very healthy upward incline)
while the payoff from investment (degrees earned) continues to
languish. Is the reason just bad choices of study? Poor work habits?
My bartender, cab driver, house cleaner and garbage collector have
never been so well-educated. (Meanwhile, my meagre education landed
me a job in a university library…long ago.)</p>

<br>

<p>Nothing wrong with working in a library. I did that myself many years
ago.</p>

<br>

<p>Educational debt has now surpassed credit card debt (over a
trillion) and keeps climbing. This debt would not be so alarming if
there were a decent return on investment - but there isn’t. Studying
the real job market, we know that the greatest demand in future is
in job growth that doesn’t even require higher education (in real
numbers) yet we educate growing numbers of our youth…for what,
exactly? Some vague idea that this will lead to middle class
income. The problem is…it isn’t.</p>

<br>

<p>Those youth make a choice to purchase an education. Just like many
made the choice to buy real estate at unsustainable prices. We now
know that a college degree doesn’t guarantee employment. People can
make educated choices now.</p>

<br>

<p>I would urge any parent of any high school student to be very wary
of higher educational costs - and if a chosen career path means a
high level of debt, consider the consequences: a student loan is not
dischargeable…it cannot be forgiven or foreclosed. The cheapest
way one can be reasonably educated is not a bad choice. Hard
skills…community college - any alternatives that do not run up
debt levels. Long-gone are the days when we can automatically assume
that a degree just pays off. It doesn’t, necessarily.</p>

<br>

<p>Why wouldn’t any consumer be wary of their major costs?</p>

<br>

<p>The definition of a “boomerang” is one who returns home - not one
who never left in the first place. Boomerangs aren’t always, but
more and more…are educated. (Well-educated?) Up for debate, I
suppose. In my generation we left, never to return. For many,
education had nothing to do with it. A healthy job market was the
real reason. As would be the case today, if it still existed.</p>

<br>

<p>Don’t speak for your entire generation. You are most assuredly wrong
about that.</p>

<br>

<p>Conventionally, we have always believed a higher education is the
crowning factor in a good life. A good mind is a terrible thing to
waste, and not develop. Agreed.</p>

<br>

<p>It’s nice to have but doesn’t guarantee employment.</p>

<br>

<p>But something else is going on that twists this all out of
shape. The numbers do not lie. They’re telling us something that the
ringleaders running the show are not telling us. We need to pay
attention…for the sake of the kids - for the sake of our future.</p>

<br>

<p>Paranoia.</p>

[KittyThinks]

<p>It’s funny how this term (boomerang) is only really appliable to US Americans.
In most countries, people don’t “go away” to college, they stay at home or get a place (flat-share mostly) while going to university and work on the side. There is no boomeranging, because you never left home.
Nobody feels ashamed or less independent by being at home after higher education, because it is simply a normal everyday wisdom that you can only be independent when you can afford to do so.</p>

<p>In general though, I see an expectation problem much more than anything else. The idea that because education is so expensive in the US, the students somehow “deserve” jobs that pay better than their previous generation, might explain the paranoia of the OP.</p>

[Lergnom]

<p>There’s a lot of nonsense in the idea of “boomerang” kids. For most of American history, families lived together. They didn’t have the resources to do else wise and so that was the cultural norm. You still see that in many places in the US. Like where I live in Boston, many families share 3 deckers or other multi-unit houses. This reached across classes until postwar USA; it was common for even the wealthy to have adult kids, even adult kids with families, living at home. </p>

<p>If you go to other countries, living at home tends to be the expectation. But to focus on the US …</p>

<p>In the US, one oddity of the postwar was massive construction of single family homes. Another was physical mobility at a larger scale. Maybe that mobility relates to and repeats the migration all white people took to get here, but it became the culture. Suburbs before WWII were streetcar suburbs, meaning close in, linked by rail and bus, next to employment. The car and the giant road construction of the 50’s changed the landscape and spread people all over in individual homes.</p>

[parentOfJunior]

<p><paranoia>
In my view this is not paranoia at all. No reason to panic yet no reason to be optimistic either. I firmly believe that next generation will not be able to have the standard of living the Boomers, Gen X etc. have. The kids will have to adjust their expectations, and we as parents will have to adjust ours too. </paranoia></p>

<p>Reminds me of a joke… a pregnant woman enters a bus during the rush hour. No one offers her a seat. She says: “I can’t believe there are no gentlemen on this bus” Someone replies: “There is plenty of gentlemen but too few seats.”</p>

<p>Like this woman, the kids are entering the world with too few seats, so plenty of them will have to stand</p>

[KittyThinks]

<p>It seems to me they rather have to start building some new seats instead of expecting them to already be there (to stick with the metaphor).</p>

<p>Emigrating to other countries is one way, self-employment is another. Sure it is harder today to make a living, but that’s true for all western countries, the solution is not to march to Washington, it’s to seek new opportunities.</p>

[BCEagle91]

<p>The paranoia is that there are people orchestrating this and they can find them and protest and get these masters of the universe to change things.</p>

[spudbuddy]

<p>During the Great Depression, families hunkered down and stayed together for pure survival. That was then. It took a godawful war to bounce us out of that.
I wonder how much individual household consuming will not happen because of less demand, due to household retraction? How many things will these adult children not buy?
A boomerang - is hardly a North American phenomenon. They can be found in Japan, Africa, the Middle East - they are the disenfranchised of the world.
I don’t consider myself particularly radical, and wear no political stripe at all (never have.)</p>

<p>There’s a bedroom community annexed to my city that produces an interesting phenomenon - seems huge sprawling tracts of McHouses and McMansions are all shared by Asian extended families…12-15 people per house. I think it’s great use of floor square footage. That - is definitely a cultural thing (but still not how I grew up at all.)
Do we have unrealistic expectations? Probably.
But what exactly did we hand off to corporate power to ship jobs away? And what exactly will replace them, to keep our economy going?
Are “kids” really happy to be pushing 30 and still living at home? Should they be?
Should a son go directly from mom to wife? Should a daughter go directly from father to husband?
Standards (as I remember them) seem to have gone to hell in a handbasket…
(or have they been pre-empted - and by whom, and for what reason?) </p>

<p>But back to politics for a moment…whether it’s whatever (national capitol) - does political will not play a role? Who else will take the ball and run with it? Who can?
I believe the strength of any nation is really in its clans…but what exactly do we do when we can no longer afford to live life as we’ve known it? (without massive leverage that would cause any intelligent individual to worry about its consequences.)
And finally: self-dependent energy? Not the way we consume it. Not by a long shot.
It would take an Arizona full of solar panels, and a national fleet of nothing larger than a smart car.
For a real fun read, check out how much fuel is consumed in one kilometer’s worth of oceanic travel by an average super container ship.
Sometimes this stuff reminds me of a bunch of kids getting hit with their very first abstract math class. ??? (I remember.)
Three non-divisibles for two kids didn’t work, back then. It still doesn’t.
In North America, we add 10 million grads to the pile every 3 years.
If the majority of them chose lousy career options, what kind of mess do we expect to clean up?
The interest on that trillion worth of educational debt - whose pockets is it lining?
I dunno…maybe these are dumb questions. If so, where are the smart ones?</p>

<p>And BCEagle - not paranoid in the least, thanks for inquiring (stating?)
Just very cynical - about the conventional spin. I haven’t watched commercial tv since I was 16, and for a reason.
I speak enough for my generation (with a pretty damned good longterm memory) to remember thousands like myself who left home ridiculously young, took jobs, paid bills, acquired educations - and the only adult in the picture was the boss who delivered the Friday paycheck.
Ahhh…but de woild’s changed…for the better? I don’t believe it. Any more than I’d believe the check’s in the mail.
Does it now take a tiger mom to raise a successful student?
Will a family home stop being a speculative dice roll?
Will a gallon of gas magically halt at a five-dollar bill and go no further?
(I almost ran down another staggering pedestrian today busy absorbed with the palm of her left hand…thumbing off those communications…why is that?)</p>

[KittyThinks]

<p>Lots of truism there spud.</p>

<p>No the world might not have changed “for the better” but the world - meaning in this case the western countries, have been spoiled for quite a while now, needs no genius to get that this wasn’t gonna last forever.</p>

<p>Forever is over now, so we all have to reduce our energy usage, stop driving everywhere at all times, stop thinking that jobs should “just be there”. If our specific job is outsourced to Asia, then we may just have to go to Asia too. If there are plenty of carpentry jobs in Sweden, then we may have to go to Sweden.</p>

<p>Pro-activity heals wounds (and wallets) faster than complaining.</p>

[BCEagle91]

<br>

<p>During the Great Depression, families hunkered down and stayed
together for pure survival. That was then.</p>

<br>

<p>Staying together was the norm. It still is in many cultures.</p>

<br>

<p>It took a godawful war to bounce us out of that.</p>

<br>

<p>You’re assuming that splitting up is a good thing.</p>

<p>The war destroyed the infrastructure of other countries so that they
couldn’t compete with us so we had an aberration of prosperity.</p>

<br>

<p>I wonder how much individual household consuming will not happen
because of less demand, due to household retraction? How many things
will these adult children not buy?</p>

<br>

<p>So what if consumption declines? When I was in my teens, I didn’t
consume a lot - nothing like what kids have today. We often had to go
without meals and my mother worked two jobs and all of us had our own
jobs. I started my first at eleven making ten cents an hour.</p>

<br>

<p>A boomerang - is hardly a North American phenomenon. They can be found
in Japan, Africa, the Middle East - they are the disenfranchised of
the world.</p>

<br>

<p>I never looked at it that way - that was the environment that we were
in and I just assumed that it was normal. You can’t necessarily manage
your environment but you can manage what you consider contentment.</p>

<br>

<p>There’s a bedroom community annexed to my city that produces an
interesting phenomenon - seems huge sprawling tracts of McHouses and
McMansions are all shared by Asian extended families…12-15
people per house. I think it’s great use of floor square footage.
That - is definitely a cultural thing (but still not how I grew up
at all.)</p>

<br>

<p>Different isn’t necessarily better or worse. It’s different.</p>

<br>

<p>Do we have unrealistic expectations? Probably.</p>

<br>

<p>Some may have unrealistic expectations. If you grow up not having much,
you have lower expectations. Perhaps reading a lot of history would
help too.</p>

<br>

<p>But what exactly did we hand off to corporate power to ship jobs
away? And what exactly will replace them, to keep our economy going?</p>

<br>

<p>Do you think that other countries like buying things from the United
States because they didn’t have the industrial capacity to build it
domestically? Our US companies compete with companies around the world.
If there is a cost benefit to shipping work elsewhere, then either they
do it or a competitor will do it (perhaps foreign) and undercut them.</p>

<br>

<p>Are “kids” really happy to be pushing 30 and still living at home?</p>

<br>

<p>I’d imagine that some are and some aren’t. It’s all a matter of
expectations and environment.</p>

<br>

<p>Should they be?</p>

<br>

<p>“I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty.
I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation,
whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want.”</p>

<p>Phil 4:12</p>

<br>

<p>Should a son go directly from mom to wife? Should a daughter go
directly from father to husband?</p>

<br>

<p>There is a great variety of experience in the human condition.</p>

<br>

<p>Standards (as I remember them) seem to have gone to hell in a
handbasket… (or have they been pre-empted - and by whom, and
for what reason?)</p>

<br>

<p>The nice thing about growing up in tough times is that your peers
understand that there were tough times and don’t whine about how
good it was in the old days.</p>

<br>

<p>But back to politics for a moment…whether it’s whatever (national
capitol) - does political will not play a role? Who else will take the
ball and run with it? Who can?</p>

<br>

<p>We’re not supposed to discuss politics here.</p>

<p>“I believe the strength of any nation is really in its clans…but
what exactly do we do when we can no longer afford to live life as
we’ve known it? (without massive leverage that would cause any
intelligent individual to worry about its consequences.)”</p>

<p>Look to history.</p>

<br>

<p>And finally: self-dependent energy? Not the way we consume it. Not by
a long shot.</p>

<br>

<p>Our consumption of energy is declining.</p>

<br>

<p>It would take an Arizona full of solar panels, and a national fleet of
nothing larger than a smart car.</p>

<br>

<p>Look at the supply and demand charts for energy.</p>

<br>

<p>For a real fun read, check out how much fuel is consumed in one
kilometer’s worth of oceanic travel by an average super container
ship.</p>

<br>

<p>If we make more things in the United States, we wouldn’t need to spend
as much shipping raw materials to asia and then shipping the finished
goods back to the US.</p>

<br>

<p>Sometimes this stuff reminds me of a bunch of kids getting hit with
their very first abstract math class. ??? (I remember.)</p>

<br>

<p>I found abstract math to be interesting, fun and easy. But that was a
long time ago.</p>

<br>

<p>Three non-divisibles for two kids didn’t work, back then. It still
doesn’t.</p>

<br>

<p>Human history has been mostly misery. We live in high luxury compared
to most of human history and the natural thing to do when we lose a
little is to whine.</p>

<br>

<p>In North America, we add 10 million grads to the pile every 3 years.
If the majority of them chose lousy career options, what kind of
mess do we expect to clean up?</p>

<br>

<p>A reversion to the mean should result in far fewer college graduates.
Maybe something twenty to twenty-five percent instead of fifty. I think
that the statistic in my state is that 70% of jobs in the future do not
require four-year college degrees.</p>

<br>

<p>The interest on that trillion worth of educational debt - whose
pockets is it lining? I dunno…maybe these are dumb questions. If
so, where are the smart ones?</p>

<br>

<p>The money is borrowed from the Treasury.</p>

<br>

<p>And BCEagle - not paranoid in the least, thanks for inquiring
(stating?) Just very cynical - about the conventional spin. I haven’t
watched commercial tv since I was 16, and for a reason.</p>

<br>

<p>Why do you think that there is someone out to get you? What we have for
economics is mostly about people doing what they believe is in their own
self-interest.</p>

<br>

<p>I speak enough for my generation (with a pretty damned good longterm
memory) to remember thousands like myself who left home ridiculously
young, took jobs, paid bills, acquired educations - and the only
adult in the picture was the boss who delivered the Friday paycheck.</p>

<br>

<p>I stayed at home for college and moved out and back in along with one
of my sisters. Seemed fine to me.</p>

<br>

<p>Ahhh…but de woild’s changed…for the better? I don’t believe
it. Any more than I’d believe the check’s in the mail.</p>

<br>

<p>Look up Kondreytieff waves.</p>

<br>

<p>Does it now take a tiger mom to raise a successful student?</p>

<br>

<p>I work with a guy with a daughter that has attended public schools and
private schools and her dad even home schooled her for a while. She
was accepted to HPM and probably some others and will be attending H
in the fall. Her mom works a ton of hours and didn’t have the
opportunity to be a tiger mom. They built a home with the idea of
their in-laws living with them for extended periods of time. I have a
niece like this too though that’s starting med school at an Ivy in the
fall - no tiger mom there either. Just very supportive parents.</p>

<br>

<p>Will a family home stop being a speculative dice roll?</p>

<br>

<p>Life = risk.</p>

<br>

<p>Will a gallon of gas magically halt at a five-dollar bill and go no
further? (I almost ran down another staggering pedestrian today
busy absorbed with the palm of her left hand…thumbing off those
communications…why is that?)</p>

<br>

<p>You might be happer at [url=<a href=“http://www.gold-eagle.com/]Gold-Eagle[/url”>http://www.gold-eagle.com/]Gold-Eagle[/url</a>] - I’ve written a few
articles in the past for them. You can mire yourself in doom and gloom
and woe is me or you can try to be the best you can be. The doom and
gloom stuff isn’t the greatest for mental and physical health.</p>

[spudbuddy]

<p>no-one’s out to get me kiddo…(in my pond, I don’t snap at that bait.)
But just for kicks, I’ll repeat one more time. The current extended generation that sent their kids off to school is obviously having their wealth (such as it is) tapped into by those same offspring. When those offspring arrive at middle age or beyond, their kids (should they ever manage to have them) will in turn, tap in to…exactly what?</p>

<p>My health is just peachy, thanks for your concern. James Howard Kunstler, Kevin Phillips, Edouardo Galeano et al would be just tickled to know that Nirvana exists so readily by ignoring the obvious…</p>

<p>And Kitty…as to driving everywhere: 70% national occupancy of suburban design was a pretty lousy idea. (China will find this out one day…though the jury’s still out that they’ll ever manage to get there.)
Point is - several million under or unemployed young people were taught that jobs would “just be there” and fattened up the educationistas quite nicely.
Welcome to the 21st century diaspora. (Personally, I’d take Denmark.)</p>