Making a living

Bought a book recently called: "Jilted generation: how Britain bankrupted its youth". The main argument the book is making is that the Baby Boomers road a wave of credit-fuelled economic growth which future generations will be paying for throughout their lifetime. Not a new argument but well argued nonetheless.

A variant of this argument that has surfaced with the recession says that the current generation of 25-45 year olds (my generation) is the first in modern history to expect a lower standard of living than the previous one. The most important word for me in the previous sentence is "expect". Without expectation there can be no disappointment. The reason that my generation is disappointed is that we expected better. The point that struck me a while back is that previous generations did not experience the same disappointed not only because they were enjoying years of economic growth but also because they didn't expect it. To a large degree it took them by surprise.

Nothing demonstrates this better to me than the difference between the questions my dad and grand-dad asked about my work. My dad would ask me about career prospects and even if I was enjoying my job. My grand-dad would ask: "are you making a living"? You see, my grand-dad never expected prosperity. Never expected to enjoy his job or reach some form of professional fulfilment. Putting bread on the table was work's reward. In my grand-dad's time, as was true for when my parents grew up, having bread on the table was not to be taken for granted. The thing is, for most people, throughout human history, having bread on the table was an achievement in its own right.

Until the 1850s virtually no one was guaranteed even basic food. Between the 1850s and 1918 it was expected by ~10% of humanity. Between 1929-1936, with 25% unemployment in the US, even many Americans did not know where their next meal would come from. And even today, in 2010, as Paul Collier shows in his book The Bottom Billion, about 1/6 of humanity do not have continuous access to fresh water and basic food.

So yes, 25 year olds in Britain today may well feel jilted. And yes, there is an enormous risk that with unemployment of 18-25 year olds at almost 20%, an entire generation may find itself outside the workforce for many years to come. At the same time, those of us, like me, who are fortunate enough to make a living, should consider ourselves fortunate (at least 3 or 4 days of every week).

PS 785km down. 215km to go.