Once in a while I succumb to temptation and write a diary detailing the colossal mess the Baby Boomers have been making of the country. When that happens I'm invariably slammed by various commentators, who take pains to point out that we shouldn't be looking at our country's problems from a generational perspective, because that hurts our ability to be really analytical and unbiased. So I trust these commentators are simply outraged at Senator Clinton's recent comments regarding the work ethic of our generation.
I hope it's no secret that I'm not a fan of Senator Clinton. Her disdain for young people has been clear for quite some time, and the fact that she's made Helen Lovejoy-style censorship (won't somebody pleaaaaaaaase think of the children?!) one of her key campaign issues hasn't helped. But I thought that her political instincts, at least, were strong enough that she'd realize that marginalizing an entire generation for short-term political gain is unwise. Whoops.
Just to make sure that we're all on the same page here, this is what the Democratic Party's Most Likely Presidential Candidate said:
After telling an audience that young people today "think work is a four-letter word," Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton said she apologized to her daughter.
"I said, 'I'm sorry, I didn't mean to convey the impression that you don't work hard,"' Clinton said Sunday in a commencement address at Long Island University. "I just want to set the bar high, because we are in a competition for the future."
Not to overload the Simpsons references, but it reminds of Principal Skinner, having been caught saying that nobody in his school has any future, shouting "Prove me wrong, kids!" It's one of those rare Dean-defined gaffes, where you actually accidentally say what you think.
This degree of ignorance from a major party figure is troubling to say the least. Even leaving aside how crotchety and out-of-touch it makes the party look, Clinton's statement is simply wrong on its face. If anything, our generation has had to struggle through far greater institutional problems than hers ever did. The Baby Boomers were fortunate enough to grow up with parents who believed in the social contract, and believed that their children were their greatest investment. Unfortunately, that ideology was not passed on to the Boomers, who have taken every opportunity to dismantle the social contract, and replace with a heartless market-driven philosophy that combines the illusion of "personal responsibility" with an increasingly unequal distribution of wealth. Within the span of her generation's leadership, this country has gone from "e pluribus unum" to "every man for himself".
Senator Clinton may want to pick up Jonathan Kozol's classic "Savage Inequalities" to get a picture of the conditions of schooling in much of America through the 80s. I have a feeling they're slightly different from her privileged Park Ridge private school experience in the 50s. The peeling paint, the collapsed roofs, the unlit hallways or bathrooms, the sense of chaos and desperation. And this is our preparation for the real world. Suburban schools were, of course, better. But not by that much. All too often, the school budget was cast as a white elephant, sucking money out of taxpayers wallets. My huge exurban high school in Central Florida had nearly no space for basketball courts or other outdoor fitness areas because nearly every inch was covered with "portable classrooms" - aluminum trailers that baked in the Florida sun. Even as our facilities were crumbling, the Boomer's craze for suburban flight was crippling the funding base for most schools. The result is communities with third world pathologies in the shadow of our greatest cities. And again, even in the suburbs, the Reaganist tax cutting mentality slashed school funding to the point that only the very elite got anything resembling a quality education. For most of us, the only bump in school funding we ever saw was in the immediate aftermath of Columbine, but that was only in the form of canine units, metal detectors, and armed guard patrols.
Upon entering the workforce, we find a host of new problems that are unique to our generation. Clinton might also want to read Nation columnist Anya Kamenetz's "Generation Debt: Why Now Is a Terrible Time to Be Young", which details the massive burden placed on the average Gen-Y worker. The college degree has become necessary for nearly every good job, yet it is no longer sufficient. Even "employable" degrees in fields like bioengineering or information technologies are losing their power, and a bachelor's in one of the humanities has been relegated to expensive wallpaper. This is in the backdrop of an average of over $20,000 of debt (and that's a mean number for undergraduates, excluding scholarship students and including graduate study would make the number even higher). Just in case Boomers out there don't get it, being unemployed (or employed at a $6.50 an hour food service job) with $20,000 of debt is not a fun situation. Meanwhile, we have to play in the extravagant field set up by the Boomers, where things like cars, health insurance, and housing are major fixed expenses with rising prices and there is very little affordable "middle ground" left. The Boomers chose to dive into debt, but for us it is absolutely institutionalized. How wonderful then, that the recent interest in "fiscal responsibility" has focused on eliminating deductions for student loans, home loans, and health care. Just as we begin to work, cost-shifting and outsourcing become the major buzzwords of the business community. When the Boomers were starting out, the nation had their back, but we're on our own.
In fact, we live in a nation with very little in the way of a hopeful future. When every year sets a new record for the deficit, how much faith can we have that the government will be able to respond to our problems? It is hard to escape the sense that we are in a fin de siecle today, with an institutional budget deficit, ballooning oil prices, major personal debt, steady cuts in government services, and a rising tide of hostility from the world as it revolts against our superpower status. Every rock-solid assumption that allowed the Boomers to prosper in a stable economy is unraveling. And yet the only response we can depend upon is condemnation for our terrible morals, our supposedly shoddy work ethic, and other stereotypes?
Let's just say I have more than a few "four letter words" for Senator Clinton. But more than anger, I'm saddened because this seems so calculated. I've been hearing this idiotically prejudicial attitude voiced by more and more older and middle-aged Americans recently, often followed by a quick "present company excluded" when they realize how old I am. Like every prejudicial stereotype, it is misinformed, but that doesn't hurt it's identity as political fodder. In fact, it follows a pretty clear historical trend: blame the victim. What are Boomer parents to do when their college graduate kids have to move home because the debt is too crushing to afford rent? Or when their kids are declaring bankruptcy at 24? Or when their kids have to borrow thousands to pay off emergency medical expenses because health insurance was too expensive? Do they admit that their generation has built an unsustainable, unjust society for their kids? Or do they save their egos by ascribing poverty to "not working hard enough"? That answer's pretty obvious to me.