Colorado Springs

Maybe I'm reading too much into this, and perhaps I'm picking on one town unfairly, but what is going on with Colorado Springs? First, the city votes to not raise taxes in the face of falling revenue due to the recession, so HUGE budget cuts go into effect. The town becomes a microcosm of letting free market principles work. City street lights and parks are shut down. Citizens can pay to have service restored, so after awhile you can tell what parts of town are affluent enough to pay for city lights and what parts are not. Some folks are willing to pay more to have the service returned than it would have cost them in taxes. But this lack of logic doesn't stop the town.

Now, the story breaks that an Easter Egg hunt has been cancelled in the town because of over zealous parents. I want my kids to get eggs too, but sometimes you don't. That's LIFE, people. What is wrong with these parents? I think my own hometown has shut down it's easter egg hunt. When I was growing up, the local Lions Club would sponser this massive easter egg hunt at the city park. they would rope off different sections of the park for different age groups, and cover the ground in these frankly awful sugar 'eggs'. You could also get a golden egg that you would redeem for a chocolate bunny. After the event, everyone would receive an ice cream bar. My grandpa was a member of the club, and one year he just 'happened' to be helping out with the pen that I was going to be hunting eggs in. When the hunt starts, I naturally run over to my grandpa because he was spreading out eggs and I wanted to be near him. I vaguely remember picking up eggs and then suddenly I find a golden egg! Cool! My parents were happy but I remember them making a comment about how grandpa accidentally 'dropped' the egg when I was there. So it was fixed. That's about all the parental interference I recall seeing when I participated. I do remember when I was older and we went there with my younger brother some parents would jump in to get eggs. What is wrong with these parents? Aren't you just teaching your kids that 'Mommy or Daddy will be there to make all your problems go away.' ?

What I don't like about free market principles in these cases is that they are so focused on the individual. We live in a society. We all need to work together. I'm not advocating that everyone should have a government paid for ipad, but what is going on is haves vs have nots. Which actually if you think about it is exactly what free market principles advocates.

Old Person Whining

My Dad sent me this today:

THE GREEN THING

  

Checking  out at the store, the young cashier suggested to the older woman that she  should bring her own grocery bags because plastic bags weren't good for  the environment.

The woman apologized and explained, "We didn't  have this green thing back in my earlier days."

The clerk  responded, "That's our problem today. Your generation did not care enough  to save our environment for future generations."

She was right --  our generation didn't have the green thing in its day or didn't call it "green."

Back then,  we returned milk bottles, soda bottles and beer bottles to the store. The  store sent them back to the plant to be washed and sterilized and  refilled, so it could use the same bottles over and over. So they really  were recycled. But we didn't have the green thing back in our  day.

We walked up stairs, because we didn't have an escalator in  every store and office building. We walked to the grocery store and didn't  climb into a 300-horsepower machine every time we had to go two blocks.  But she was right. We didn't have the green thing in our day.

Back  then, we washed the baby's diapers because we didn't have the throw-away  kind. We dried clothes on a line, not in an energy gobbling machine  burning up 220 volts -- wind and solar power really did dry our clothes  back in our early days. Kids got hand-me-down clothes from their brothers  or sisters, not always brand-new clothing. But that young lady is right.  We didn't have the green thing back in our day.

Back then, we had  one TV, or radio, in the house -- not a TV in every room. And the TV had a  small screen the size of a handkerchief (remember them?), not a screen the  size of the state of Montana . In the kitchen, we blended and stirred by  hand because we didn't have electric machines to do everything for us. When we packaged a fragile item to send in the mail, we used wadded up old  newspapers to cushion it, not Styrofoam or plastic bubble wrap  Back then,  we didn't fire up an engine and burn gasoline just to cut the lawn. We  used a push mower that ran on human power. We exercised by working so we  didn't need to go to a health club to run on treadmills that operate on  electricity. But she's right.  We didn't have the green thing back  then.

We drank from a fountain when we were thirsty instead of  using a cup or a plastic bottle every time we had a drink of water. We  refilled writing pens with ink instead of buying a new pen, and we  replaced the razor blades in a razor instead of throwing away the whole  razor just because the blade got dull. But we didn't have the green thing  back then.

Back then, people took the streetcar or a bus, and kids  rode their bikes to school or walked instead of turning their moms into a  24-hour taxi service. We had one electrical outlet in a room, not an  entire bank of sockets to power a dozen appliances. And we didn't need a  computerized gadget to receive a signal beamed from satellites 2,000 miles  out in space in order to find the nearest pizza joint.

But the current generation laments how wasteful we old folks were just because we didn't have the green thing back then?

Please forward  this on to another selfish old person who needs a lesson in conservation from a smartass young person.


Remember:  Don't make old people mad! 

 

We don't  like being old in the first place, so it doesn't take much to tick us  off.

I wrote a response, but I'm not sure I should send it to him.

Wow…ok, this will probably make you mad, but here goes. 

Nobody brings bottles and cans into the stores anymore because the stores refuse to take them, and people fight curbside recycling programs until they are forced to use them and they everyone says how wonderful they are. And the above comment from the clerk was about plastic bags, not glass and aluminum. Walking everywhere was seen as an inconvenience, so the older folks created cars and suburbs and sprawl so they wouldn't have to walk everywhere, then became old and didn’t like being old so they created pills for erectile dysfunction and cholesterol and shove these ads all over the TV so that my 4 year old asks me what that is, and they parade around in free, government-funded electric wheelchairs and scream about DEATHPANELS! as soon as someone mentions making any changes to Medicare for anyone over 55. Advances in technology and medicine have lulled us into believing we can fix anything that's wrong with our bodies, pain and expense be damned. Our politicians capitalize on this antagonism by assuring the old folks that their government benefits will be fine, that all the proposed changes only apply to the next generation. But who pays for the old folks benefits? Folks who aren’t retired yet. But the workers still have to put up with being told how we are doing everything wrong while we are expected to support our older generation on top of supporting ourselves.

We are forced to drive everywhere because our parents designed our cities to force us to use cars because that is ‘freedom’ and we only go to our cities to work and then flee to the suburbs, making the cities practically deserts at night. These old folks have taught us that economic growth is the ultimate goal for capitalism, yet all we have to show for it is more JUNK with less overall happiness. Maybe old people are mad because they are being shown that their views of the world might be incorrect in some ways. What’s wrong with that? I know some of my views are incorrect, and I would like to learn why and how. But we don’t reward knowledge anymore unless it can make you obscene amounts of money.

People choose to use dryers. We aren’t forced to use them. But we are continually bashed over the head with very, very effective advertising saying that we should use dryers and that walking is for dummies and that we aren’t manly men if we don’t own GIGANTIC MADE IN THE USA FORD F-350 Diesels that have HEMIS and can pull a gigantic boat that we never use. All I wanted to do was watch a freaking football game, yet I have to hear about how my lifestyle is inadequate during every commercial break. So dryers are bad but washing machines are good? When was the last time you hand washed all your clothes? I have to mute the TV during the ads because the commercials are so loud that even if I flee the room I am bombarded by the sound and fury of these commercials. Yet if I ignore these ads and refuse to buy things I don’t need, I am told that I am being un-American for not buying things and keeping the economy going. I don’t think that the old people were told that not buying is un-American, yet these same older folks who run and profit from these companies in retirement are telling us to do so. I don’t get it. If we just eliminate the god awful amounts of CRAP that we make, we would be much better off.

I like using a fountain for drinking water. A lot of people don’t because in a lot of places in the country the city water is HORRIBLE because old and young alike refuse to pay for new water infrastructure. Old folks remember what the old days were like because they were experiencing all of this fabulous new infrastructure that was NEW so that the water tasted a lot better and wasn’t full of giardia from the well or stream.

I take the bus because it makes sense and is actually cheaper than driving my car everywhere. Old people must think we are really pathetic for letting our kids run our lives, yet aren’t they the ones that taught us to do that when they were driving us around to soccer and baseball games in the 80’s? People do this because they think that our kids want to have really fulfilling childhoods because that will get them and edge in life and they are just sick and tired of hearing grandpa bitch about how he had to walk to school in 8 feet of snow uphill both ways every time they say hello to him and maybe they don’t want their kids to turn out the same way.

Old folks were wasteful back in the day, but like most Americans today including me and you, we are all wasteful now and have embraced the wasteful lifestyle. I think being able to use my phone to find a pizza joint is awesome now, and saves a lot of paper instead of using a phone book that doesn’t ever get used. If you agree with how dumb a smartphone is, why do you own one yourself?

Kids today are a product of their upbringing, so if kids are whining now, isn’t that because the parents (now the older generations) spoiled the snot out of them and didn’t teach them that reality doesn’t always mean getting a gold star for finger painting or their 5^th grade graduation? We teach kids that they are special, but if everyone is special, then no one is.

Old folks scold kids for staying inside and playing video games, and while exercise is a must, I bet those old folks would have played video games if they had been around when they were young. They would have eaten (and do eat) at McDonalds. When the old folks were young, all these appliances were touted and embraced as signs of PROGRESS and American ingenuity. Now they are being labeled as terrible devices that make everyone lazy. I’m pretty sure that our grandparents’ grandparents grumbled about how cars were dumb and the horse and buggy was all that was needed (never mind the massive piles of dung that would collect in the streets). People were and are wasteful because they don’t know any better. Why is knowledge treated as a bad thing nowadays? It’s human nature to resist change, but as humans aren’t we obliged to take care of our environment and not just exploit it?

So just spare me the old person whining, and I’ll spare you mine. What ever happened to ‘We are all in this together.”?

That’s how I was raised. 

They don't get it

Lots of people wonder why the younger generation (under 30) are so cynical and anti-establishment. Let me help them reach some understanding on this.

The current ruling generation (baby boomers) has the appearance of wanting its cake and eating it too. We (the Gen Y) were brought up by these folks being told that anything is possible if you work hard and be honest. We were taught that if we could dream it, we could do it. We were taught that morals were important, and that not having morals was evil and those who chose that path would not succeed. Now that my generation is coming of age, we are realizing that that was just a bunch of smoke and mirrors created not for our benefit, but for our parents' benefit. Maybe this is just our coming-of-age moment, this realization that our parents' generation is so terribly off base and self-centered.

Health care is paid for, but Republicans don't like it. Even the Republicans that voted for the deficit-funded Medicare Part D benefit are fighting against the current Health Care reform. Bruce Bartlett even takes Republicans to task over the health care debate. Hypocrisy at the highest levels of government. Isn't this what Jesus taught us was bad? The current Right-wing "moral high ground" pundits talk, the more I associate their justifications with an 'eye for an eye' Old Testament basis, not a New Testament 'turn the other cheek' basis that I was taught growing up. We have hard-core Farm Belt Republicans railing against big government, yet they happily lobby Washington for increases in the Farm Bill. Raising taxes is the the devil's work, yet we continue to spend ungodly amounts on the defense budget and two wars. Our economy is tanking, while the rich get more and more. The rank and file middle class wages are kept in check with 'pay for performance' while upper class wages skyrocket based on abysmal performance. Our Congress is broken, with our out-of-touch rich folk Congress wringing their hands over whether or not the government should be funding abortion, meanwhile unemployment has risen to 10.2%. This doesn't seem to matter much, because Wall St. is pretty happy with how things have gone, and what is good for Wall St. is good for Main St, right? Obama talked about change, but its become more and more of the same.

The worst part is, which health care prolonging people's life spans, the baby boomer generation will stay in power for a longer period than any previous generation. This means that me and my son will be paying the price for this incompetence for decades. Is it any wonder why Gen Y'rs run and hide in Facebook and MySpace? That is the only solace we have left. The more you look at how we got to this point in our American history, the more sad and angry one becomes. I hope that the crisis of 2008-2009 moves us in a different direction, but as we move into 2010, things aren't looking that way.

Parenting as a DIWK

How is it possible to be good parents when both must work? Right now I am really at a loss to answer this. We had a really bad night with our son who is ill, and I'm feeling really down about the whole situation. I keep having this though go through my head and the thought is how it is really not possible to maintain a middle-class, low-key, 40-hour work week lifestyle with one income in America. In order to live in a region where job prospects are good you need to have 2 incomes, or else one partner must work the equivalent of 2 jobs in order to maintain their lifestyle. I'm rambling here so I'll just get to the point: I want to support my family with the job (non-management position) that I currently have. Here's a list of things that I want:

1. Enable my wife to stay at home with our son for his first few years
2. Be able to keep our current lifestyle intact (I feel that our current lifestyle is somewhat frugal and not extreme as compared to my peers of similar age and occupation
3. Our current lifestyle consists of:
1. Keep our current home
2. Put a grand into savings every month
3. Have a couple hundred for
   disposable income items

Is this REALLY too much to ask? Unfortunately, this idyllic Leave It To Beaver lifestyle isn't possible anymore. Maybe after this current economic 'crisis' things will revert back to the mid-seventies when homes were low-priced and wages were still on the rise. I think that having good wage increases fixes almost all of our problems. But that is another post.

Stuff that sucks

Here's a very depressing but very realistic summary of the current outlook on retirement. My 401(k) has lost about 1/3 of it's value. But I'm lucky because I'm 29 and have only been saving for 6 years. I hope I get most of that money back. But with the way the stock market is changing, should I still invest? Or has this whole idea of retirement been just a complete sham? It feels like it has been. I have no trust for anyone in management. I feel completely disillusioned. There is no hope for change, because all you end up with is a compromise that is not what you wanted to begin with.

Why Baby Boomers Suck:

I am a member of Generation Y. The generation that wants is all, that deserves it all. The generation that did get it all. We are a generation that thinks we all deserve trophies at the end of Little League, even though our team is 1-7. We are the generation that has multiple valedictorians not because they are all smart, but because our terrible education system just couldn't say No and pick just one. I detest Generation Y.

As a son of parents born in 1955, I am a product of a generation that grew up listening to stories about the horrors of WWII, but didn't have to experience anything remotely like that War. Its a generation that began to come of age during the so-called counter culture of the late 60's. It's ironic to think back to that generation. Rebelling against authority, then carrying that rebellious nature through the 70's until the previous generation is finally on the way out in the 80's and unleashing all that pent up energy in every conceivable way. It's where we are now.

The Environment is trashed. The economy is trashed. The past 30 years, my lifetime has been one huge fuck-up. If anything, the baby boomers will be known as the generation of huge rewards with no responsibility. All marketing with no substance. What has been presented to us is the packaged bacon in the store, and what is hidden is the huge pig farm, slaughterhouse and genetic pig engineering which is the actual reality and truth.

I feel like we have passed the point of no return. I feel like my son is going to grow up into a world of nothing but mess. I feel very ashamed to be a part of all this. We call this civilized society. This is not civilized. This is just as gory and messy as the African Savannah. If God is watching, he's got to be thinking that things have really gotten out of hand in a very bad way.