General Discussion

It is no wonder that you feel your generation is particularly bitter and without hope. This is a tough time. But, I am 70, and I assure you that we have known very tough times before.

This time is, of course, different. Technology and "free" trade are eliminating jobs and opportunities. The disparity in wealth makes it much harder than maybe since the 1890s or early 1900s for anyone to move up economically. And what is even worse, it isn't just us humans who are under extreme stress due to our inability to adapt to new technological and economic realities, but our very environment. The earth beneath our feet and the air we breathe and the water we drink are endangered.

But the thing about life that is always constant is change. We can make our own change. I think the key to your OP, the key to overcoming the problems that you and your generation face are the same as the keys the baby boomers faced when they entered life as part of a huge generation for whom there was no housing, whose unhappy parents had undergone terrible stress during the Depression and WWII and were often very difficult and for whom there was really lots of material wealth but not always the love at home that they needed. That key is that you need to create social networks and social movements that demand not hope but real change.

The income and wealth disparity in our country is increasingly oppressive. This is not just the problem for your generation, but for all of us. I know so many people in their 50s who have lost their jobs in the past 6 or so years and are having great difficulty finding decent-paying new ones that are appropriate for their skill sets. Those who have savings are living off them. The homeless are very visible in my neighborhood. This was not the case ten years ago.

Please note that we had quite a recession in the 1980s during the Reagan era, As someone else mentioned, the baby boomers faced the draft and an absurd and pointless war in Viet Nam that went on and on only to save the face of our military and national leaders. Talk about distressing and soul-destroying. Talk about disillusionment. And now young people look at that generation and view it as having had it "easy."

Always, the solutions are in finding people who are going through the same problems you are and confronting your problems together. I have been wondering why people are not joining unions and forming unions. There could be a union of the unemployed. In fact, I think there should be a union of the unemployed.

In spite of the seemingly insurmountable problems you face, you have assets and opportunities that no generation before you could have imagined. The internet is one. The experience of a lot of people who are older and recognize and respect your distress at the current situation is also an asset if you and others whose views are similar to yours can join together to learn from that experience and plot a strategy for improving not just your own situation but that of all generations.

Those who benefit from the rise in stock prices are really very few. It may appear that seniors are more comfortable economically than your generation. But one of the big dangers today is that we live longer and as we age we have increasingly severe health problems and debilitation. Many of today's healthy seniors will, in a few years be forced to live in assisted living. That is because their children, like you, will most likely be working at low-paying jobs and in no position to care for their aging parents. Thus, the savings of the parents will pass to the hands of again, the financial sector that profits from homes for the aging. And so, we return to the issue that we must work on: we must change our society so that we have less disparity in wealth and income. That is the big challenge for your generation. The generation of FDR, of the Depression faced that same challenge and was able to correct an economy that had deteriorated to the point that people did not have enough to eat.

That is why your generation which is the generation at the age in which people have energy and physical strength needs to draw on history, to learn not just how mistakes were made in the past, but how societies recovered from their mistakes. And then you must organize for the good of the whole country, for the good of all generations in the country. You are in charge now. And someone from your generation will be sitting in the positions of power and managing the world within the next 20-30 years. So you need to organize yourselves and work with all generations to improve not just your own situation but that of everyone in the country. The wealthy are investing money overseas, not here. That is a huge problem.

When we feel depressed, we need to rethink our expectations. Your generation cannot expect to live as your parents lived. They had advantages you do not have. But, you have advantages and opportunities they lacked. So you need to think about your expectations. They may be too low considering the opportunities that the internet and the opportunity to form social networks from the distance provide to organize and work together with others. They may be too high in other respects. But they probably need to be reviewed if you feel depressed from time to time.

Also, a good way to deal with depression is to think less about one's own problems and more about those of others.

If you have an opportunity to talk to someone, ask the person about his or her life. Then go home and write down notes about what you learned from the conversation. If you aren't working, try to meet a new person every day and just chat briefly with that person about his or her situation. You don't have to pry. It goes like this. In the grocery store at the check out, if the cashier is not too busy, just ask "Busy today?" and smile. Or just say "Happy New Year." If the store is not busy, you may get a response. Work at making other people happy in very small ways, and you will begin to connect and life will seem better. That is how you overcome shyness as well as depression.

I wish you luck, and I appreciate all the time and effort you put into your post. It is very moving. Thanks.