The Post-Social Contract Generation

[marmar]

from HuffPost:




Dr. Judith Rodin
The Post-Social Contract Generation
Posted July 17, 2008 | 03:00 PM (EST)




This week, the Rockefeller Foundation and TIME released a comprehensive survey, which asked several thousand Americans about their sense of economic security. One finding took us especially by surprise: almost half of America's youngest workers believe the nation's best days may have come and gone.

This is Generation Y: roughly 90 million Americans born between 1979 and 1990. They are the nation's largest age group, and increasingly its most pessimistic. They are America's future, but fear the all-too-real possibility they might fare worse than their parents.

The survey emerged from two years of work shaping policies and products that can help Americans weather the crosswinds of global economic transformation, but we learned, in the process, about the plight of America's broken social contract.

Between the bookends of the Roosevelt and Reagan administrations, Americans, their employers, and government entered into an implied agreement that afforded citizens a basic level of economic security if they worked hard and took responsibility for their families. Today, that 20th century social contract is in tatters, and eight in 10 of us yearn for a new bargain to help meet 21st century challenges.

Young people are leading the trend. Ninety percent say the social contract is broken and 87 percent -- the largest portion in any age group -- are calling out for a new one.

One reason is that they acutely feel the current economic crunch. We saw it repeatedly in the survey: six in 10 had to borrow money from a friend to meet basic expenses; four in 10 skipped a doctor's appointment because of the costs. ......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/judith-rodin/the-post-social-contract_b_113368.html

[ProgressiveFool]

1. weird, I thought the millenials were supposed to be all happy-go-lucky

and it was just us gen-Xers that were angsty and depressed.

Welcome to the club, kids.

[marmar]

2. As a fellow Gen-Xer, I thought so too.....

..... let's go talk this over at a coffee house. .... Wear your flannel.

[whistle]

3. The new bargain is what if it is not to work hard and take responsibility for their families?

...Do they just walk away from their responsibilities and their families and screw work?

[Warpy]

4. The new bargain is that it's no bargain, at all

It was renegotiated at the top without our input or consent and it's been going on since the first Boomers hit the job market.

The new contract is all one sided. We're supposed to live to work, not the other way around, and expect very little in return. We're supposed to glory in the fact that the CEO of our corporation has more vacation palaces than the CEO of a competitor's corporation. We're supposed to work for the sheer pleasure of it and if we get any sort of a paycheck, to be deeply grateful for the privilege of being paid for our efforts.

We're supposed to forgo all family life, vacation, and recreation time now because our class simply shouldn't afford us these indulgences. Oh, we're supposed to go into debt to have a showplace house full of toys we never get to use because we're always working.

We're supposed to be in contact 24/7/365 via cell phone, pager, or Blackberry, always at the beck and call of our masters, because that's what we're here for and why they suffer our existence.

When we get sick or have too many birthdays, we're supposed to accept being tossed on a scrap heap of worn out peasants, to die quietly and without causing any fuss or expense to the owners.

It's not just GenY. Everyone now working has had the dubious benefit of having the social contract renegotiated to their detriment. The oldest Boomers just remember it used to be different.

[Dollface]

6. You describe the return of serfdom

Now I'm depressed

[Warpy]

7. We've also been here before

and pushed the pendulum back.

It will require effort. It can be done.

[Dollface]

8. It'll give me something to do besides play bridge when I retire, (semi,can't afford full anymore)

pendulum pushing sounds like a real calorie burner. Although little old white haired protester ladies don't receive the deference from the police that they once did.

[Dollface]

5. I reside and am exposed to many 1990ish persons. They seem fully aware that they will need to work

their little hinies off to even get close to what gram and gramps made with a HS education and a factory job. They are also appear to be more tolerant and more politically aware than any generation since the 60's but they are more skeptical, more realistic, and, hands down, more globallly aware. Also, they dig Obama.

I think they are the start of generation Z and I think they are going to be (if I may use their favorite word) AMAZING!

[BeHereNow]

9. Train Hoppers and Squatters on the rise in Generation Y- had a long talk about it with some of them

My daughter is part of this generation-
She has many friends who can't find jobs
and are increasingly turning to communal squatting
in abandoned buildings, living 14 or more in
cheap rentals and their general mode of
migration is hopping trains and using the internet
to find ride shares with other kids.

They dumpster dive and garden-
they recycle used clothing and drag
discarded furniture to their "homes."

They see no future and constantly
talk about 2012 being the end of the world.

They believe that they will soon die in
a nuclear war and therefore want to live free
and experience as much of life as they can.

I don't think the average American is really
aware of this growing sub-culture.

I sure am because several of these kids
have stayed at our house on their way to
San Francisco or Seattle.

It's like a modern day hobo movement,
but they are our children and no one
gives a shit about them.

It's really tragic to me, but they feel
they are preparing to survive the
collapse of civilization.

BHN

[BeHereNow]

10. K&R by the way...

bhn