The Four Of Diamonds
Note from Me: This is part one in a two part deal, which will become a "pair". So next week you'll see a Four of Clubs to go along with the Four of Diamonds, which will be a continuation of this whole essay. Why you might ask, am I taking two essays to do all this? Because I don't want to make your eyes bleed. In fact, I want your eyes in tact, so that I can make them read more of my diatribes. Anyhow, enjoy folks. And if you're looking for documentation on where I found all this stuff out, I'll get back to you at the end of the next essay. Which is going to take me all week to write. Which is why this first part is early. Enjoy! Around a year ago, or even before that, my sister sent me this article through email about how my generation, the “Y” generation, is faring with debt. And it began to make me wonder about a whole bunch of things, like how I’m going to pay for college and the lot. But then again, I’m sitting here at Auburn University, already over twenty thousand dollars in debt. That much money is not a laughing matter. For instance, my father currently cashed out one of his investment retirement accounts to put a down payment on a condo he decided to buy in South Carolina. He was tired of living in a house he really couldn’t do what he wanted in, and wanted a bit more room to spread out and relax as well. And during this whole time, he’s been saying how he has wanted to leave South Carolina in the first place and move somewhere else. But for the time being, he’s buying a condo. And he’s putting himself in a lot of debt to do so. He’s a child of the mid-1950s, and is really post baby boomer. And he was also a child in the 1960s when Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon were doing their very best to destroy our economic footing with the gold standard and kill off 58,000 young men in the Vietnam War. My father was very lucky, because by the time the draft had finished, he was just graduating from high school in Huntsville, where I eventually graduated as well. My generation however, was not saddled with the same type of debt his has been. His has the legacy of controlling the country right now, with doing as much as possible to keep things stabilized and to make as much money as possible before retirement. However, because they are trying to make so much money, they have been doing a great disservice to my generation, because they have been helping to A) destroy the future economic prospect of my generation getting a good job and B) starting to retire later and thus holding up jobs. It does not help as well that the next generation, the one I’m calling the Millennium Generation, is already beginning to grow. But what does all this in the grand scheme of things have to do with the fact that my generation is saddled with debt? Well, it’s a funny thing, but it has to do with making money, which colleges like to do. You see, in this Village Voice article, or series really, called “Generation Debt: The New Economics of Being Young” written by Anya Kamenetz. She tends to point out that colleges are raising tuition rates, and that students are forced to take out more and more loans to cover the cost of tuition. But here’s how I look at it, as a college student: the more money we borrow, the more money we are forced to make over a lifetime in order to be able to retire. And in a way, this is how Anya Kamenetz is trying to portray it as well. And she sees the big picture, and even brings in the smaller, more personal picture as well when using examples of people. However, I think one thing is missing in all this, and it’s who to blame? Unfortunately, it’s probably our parents. They are a generation who are so worked up about the fact that they are going to have to retire in twenty years that anything that they can get is worth taking. My mother is an excellent example of this, because she has applied for a part time job at Barnes and Noble (as a side note, I actually was kind of wishing she would get that job, not because of the fact that she would be working at Barnes and Noble, and how cool is that? But for the fact that she would be working at Barnes and Noble and could get me an employee discount. Which in some respects is unfair, but at the same time, eh. Whatever.) While she didn’t get the job, she was hoping because of the benefits. I take this excerpt from their corporate website where it clearly states: “We're one of the few companies that offer health coverage to part-time employees.” Yes folks, you heard this correctly. Health Coverage to part-time employees for all, and all a good night. This is the sort of benefits that other companies, especially retail and food service industry companies, need to add to their package. You want our generation to work for little or nothing, long hours at that, and get nothing in return? Our parents are the models for which we learn the basics of business, so why not act like them? We should be demanding more from people like McDonalds and Pier-One. We’re only asking for Medical Coverage, and maybe a 401k. I don’t think that’s too much to ask, do you? Especially since a 401k can be directly invested back into the company in the first place. Look at it this way: I’ve got a few million in stock I want to get rid of, and I’m the CEO of a corporation. Do I simply cash it out on the market and let someone try to take over my company, or do I let the company buy the stock back from me, make a nice paycheck at the end of the month and have the company reinvest the stock into 401K’s for my employees? Which sounds better? Now, if you’re an economist, you’re thinking the former because more money can be made that way and it attracts more attention by investors who have deep pockets. But if you’re like me, a kid who has no money to speak of right now and could really use some, the latter sounds better. Why? Because as it stands right now, as a generation, we’re fucked. I say this because if you go to websites like Socialsecurity.org, they will tell you an astonishing amount of figures on what’s going on. And projections of how much Social Security will be paying out rather than taking in. While projections really don’t mean much, you have to look at it this way: people are living longer. And why are people living longer? Because our parents are greedy, and want to make more money as long as they can from whomever they can. And unfortunately, they will do it any way they can. They are the scientists who are coming up with all sorts of new medicine to help the elderly. And don’t think I don’t like the elderly. Hell, I love the elderly. It’s the drug companies that I don’t like. They’ve gotten greedy and have been messing with the natural order of things. Look at it this way: Our parents grandparents started to die in the 1970s, and more likely in the 1980s. They would have been in between 70 and 90 years old when they died. Some of them are still alive. And it’s mostly the fault of modern medicine. However, if you look back farther, say, our grandparents grandparents, they would have died probably sometime in between 1935 and 1955, and would have been in between 65 and 80 years old. Notice the mean age of death is getting higher each year? I have. And I’ve also been noticing the fact that there are more drugs on the market, in the pharmacy. I’ve also noticed that companies that traditionally wouldn’t have dreamed of spending money in NASCAR, companies like Pfizer, have been. And Mark Martin is driving their car. Maybe this is one huge diatribe against a lot of people, but I think that our generational debt, social security, drug company policies, and most importantly, the elderly have one thing in common: we’re all in this together. Our parents are burdened with running the country right now, of telling us how to do things and fighting wars of which we started. They are burdened with the fact that life itself is becoming more expensive, yet somehow are able to afford a new car, or new place to live, or anything to really distract themselves from the growing problems their kids are having. My generation dubbed “Y,” can’t fight it right now. We’re wondering if we’re going to have a job tomorrow with enough health insurance so that we can go buy drugs that are too expensive. But the whole thing is one man’s fault. And his name is George W. Bush. Now, I’m not one to go and blame someone without some evidence. I’ve seen Farenheit 9/11, and frankly, while Michael Moore had evidence, he twisted it his own way. I agree in principle that the current president for the next four years is bad, and that at the moment there is nothing I can do about it. But I don’t agree with the way Michael Moore went about attacking people. Now, this might make me sound like a hypocrite when I first did a large diatribe rant about Farenheit 9/11 back in June, where I pretty much agreed with Michael Moore and even defended him a bit. However, my stance has changed some. I stand by the ideals that Bush is a bad president, and he’s a lying coke snorting evil man, but I don’t agree that Moore should have been trying to twist things so much that is makes him look bad. Which is what most people I’ve talked to about the movie have said about the movie, that Moore twisted it too much and he destroyed his credibility that way. But, in retrospect, I still did vote for Kerry. And I’ll tell you why. He’s smarter than Bush, and he knew how to fix things that are horribly broken. Like for instance, Social Security. But the biggest thing I can say for John Kerry is that he cared about drugs, the prescription kind, the kind my grandparents need to take. So they voted for Kerry. And they told me so. And you know what? I love my grandparents more and more. But they are getting older as well, and have already saved their nest egg. However, what about grandparents who rely off of Social Security and Medicare? What are we, as generation “Y” going to do about that? And the answer simply is that we can’t do anything about it. We’re done, cooked. And everything that we would have received is done for as well. So thus, we sit here and we try. And as a generation, we’re trying hard, but we just can’t seem to get it completely right. While I would continue on and make your eyes bleed about how much I hate Bush, and how he has tried to destroy our economy, I think I’m going to wait until next post, and make this a pair. So until next time, keep on trying to get a job that you can maybe go see the doctor after getting. Until then, I suggest you take two aspirin and call me in the morning.
Copyright © 2005 Kevin Myrick |