Man, It Would be Great to be 13 Right Now
Everyone is affected by this economy; there is no way around it. Whether you are 16 looking for a part time job, 23 looking to start a career, or a baby boomer trying to begin retirement, your life has been impacted. However, this would be the perfect time to just hit the teenage years.
If I asked everyone who is in some way pissed about this economy to raise their hands, almost everyone that is on the same continent as I am would stick their paw up high. It sucks. Unemployment is high, foreclosures are common, and resolutions seem years away. Well, we are correct in being upset. It is our right. We pay taxes. We try to better ourselves in work, school, and personal lives. We try hard, with all the vigor we can muster, and these days we sadly fail.
I am 25, a recent college graduate with a very not extraordinary degree in English. Even with a decade of work experience, military veteran status, a huge network of people, and all the motivation in the world, getting a job that matters seems slimmer than winning the lottery. In fact, after I write this I may go buy a ticket. The only places that seem to be hiring are insurance sales. Speaking to people around my age with more useful degrees than I, even the largest engineering companies have freezes. I haven’t even seen a help wanted sign on a Starbucks door forever. The comforting thing is, I know I am not alone. There are people out there with double master degrees making slightly under $40,000 a year out there. Have fun paying off your school loans never!
On the opposite end of the spectrum are the people hitting retirement age that watched their nest eggs dwindle down to a fraction of it was before. They can either move from La Jolla to Wisconsin, or continue to work until by the time they retire, the whole point of it is wasted. Going straight from the factory or firm to the retirement community to live for a couple more of senile shuffleboard hoping the grandkids will visit doesn’t seem like the dream life to me. On top of that, when these people continue to work, which most seem to be doing, it closes down the openings for new hires looking to start their Dilbertesque lives. You can’t compare the experience of a 25 year old to a 65 year old, not even close.
However, like all storms we have had throughout history, this one will pass. People will be forced into retirement, new jobs will open up, our economy will stabilize, and so forth. House prices will go back up, we won’t have to worry as much about in/deflation, and we will all live our merry little lives in peace and harmony.
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