HabitableZone

Flame » in reply to The last generation of Republicans

They're already working on the next generation.

Already, we're seeing a generation of youth coming of age who know for a fact that they will never have the prosperity of their parents. They will never own a home, have dependable health insurance, have a nice office or factory job, or go to college unless they assume crippling debt. They won't even be able to control the size and timing of their families, a key determinant and driver of upward mobility. I don't know where you are doing your polling, Robert, but not all our young people are preppy, clean-cut, super articulate Liberal Parkland students, most have already dropped out of inner city schools or Meth and Opioid post-industrial America. Young people have graduated into a work force that has nothing to offer them but unpaid internships and a take-it-or-leave-it contempt. Fries with that burger, sir?

Our generation was the lucky one, we hit the sweet spot. Maybe it was sheer luck, maybe deliberate planning, maybe a combination of the two. Our children and grandchildren will lack many of the advantages we had, and they are systematically being coached to resent us for that. They have set black against white, immigrant versus native born, urban vs rural, educated versus ignorant, men against women. It is only a matter of time before the young are set against the old.

And this new generation of proles will have nothing but resentment for their boomer parents and grandparents, who they are reminded every day are wallowing in entitlement luxury derived from the withholding taxes of the working poor. Even today, when unemployment is very low, salaries are stagnant and careers are nowhere as plentiful as jobs, youth are moving into a future of temporary piece-work, part-time insecurity, no benefits, and "gig economy" (optimistically described as grass roots entrepreneurialism). We can't all be coders or Youtube artists, and, BTW, Gupta already has that job. The only reason we cannot easily detect a wave of rising anger and resentment among the young is because they are still strong and resilient, not to mention optimistic and getting laid frequently. When I was their age I was at my peak of performance and career growth, so I didn't notice how quickly things were turning sour during the Reagan years. I, and everyone I knew, were well educated young professionals on the way up, sure, we thought everything was just fine. Give the youngsters a few more years of stagnation and they're going to be just as pissed off as their parents already are. The Trumps of the future will have all the recruits they need.

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