Suck It Up Millennials

Although I feel for the plight of millennials right now I am having difficulty with their sense of entitlement and the fact that they seem to believe their plight is new and unique.

I graduated from university in the middle of a major recession. The unemployment rate was around 10%. People who had established careers, who had 10-15 years of experience, suddenly saw their jobs disappear and they were forced to take entry level position, at half the salary, just to pay their mortgages, assuming they could find the jobs. While mortgage rates were coming down they were coming down from around a peak of 18% and they were still in the double digits.

As a result, I was forced to take a job that paid way below the average, had no benefits and provided me with no skills that I could use for a future job. I languished there for three years before the job market perked up enough for me to go looking for something where my degree would be useful. However, although I had the degree I did not have any experience so I had to go from gig to gig to build a resume, having no financial security for the 5 years it took me to do that. Finally, after close to a decade after university I found a career and the relative security that goes along with it. I call that part of my life the "lost decade" and although I am currently doing well that lost decade will have an impact on my retirement.

During that decade I lived in a dive apartment in a sketchy part of town because the rent was dirt cheap. I drove a beater that I prayed would stay together for yet one more year every year during that period. Buying a house was a fantasy. So what millennials are going through now is not new or unique.

However that does not stop them from having a sense of entitlement because between 1993 and 2019 the economy was in pretty good shape. The financial crisis of 2008 caused a short but sharp recession but the Bank of Canada lowering interest rates to below zero cushioned the blow for people and allowed for almost uninterrupted economic good times. In short, for much of the life of millennials they and their families had it pretty good.

Of course, it could not last and there were already signs that the good times were coming to an end before the pandemic brought that end much more quickly than anybody anticipated. Now millennials find themselves in the same position I found myself all of those years ago.

My advice to them is to realize that the world owes you nothing. Suck it up, do what you need to do to change your circumstances and realize that the change is not going to happen overnight. Oh yes, I would also suggest that you demand governments to change labour laws to make forming unions much easier. Vote for governments who will do just that. That is the only way you are going to be able to raise your salaries and increase your financial security. As well, use whatever power you might have to demand Universal Basic Income and again vote for governments that will establish it. That will help you and it might prevent a future generation from going through what you are going through now and what I went through a few decades ago.

Oppenheimer and Barbie

If you would have told me last year that I would use both of those names in a title of a post I would have called you crazy but here we are.

I saw both movies this week.

Oppenheimer is a fantastic movie. I already knew the history but the movie gave it life and it was compelling. However, as I was watching it I was reminded about just how fickle governments can be with those that help them as I remembered what the British government did to Alan Turing.

Both Oppenheimer and Turing were vital in the war efforts for the US and Britain. 

Without Turing's breaking of the Enigma machine it is probable that the British would have been knocked out of the war in 1943. You see, Alan Turing's work allowed the British to hear what the German navy command was saying to its U-Boats. That was huge factor in the allies winning the Battle of the Atlantic. Indeed, this historian would say it was the deciding factor. Without it the pressure on Britain would have come to a head in 1943 and they would have had to sue for peace. Which, of course, would have lead to a post-war history much different than the one we got.

It can be argued that Robert Oppenheimer saved the lives of 10s of thousands and maybe 100s of thousands of US servicemen and likely many more Japanese. The atomic bombs finally convinced the Japanese of the futility of continuing the war. 

Neither of these facts saved either one from the wrath of their governments once the war ended and they were deemed undesirable. Or more accurately, neither of these facts saved them from the machinations of narrow minded, stupid politicians. 

I found the Barbie movie to be uneven. Some parts made me laugh out loud while I found other parts just plain weird. Really I found the movie to be "meh".

I can see why some on the right are pissed at the movie though. The feminist message of the movie is about as subtle as a kick in the crotch. Then again, since Barbie has always been about teaching girls that they can be just about anything they want to be I have to ask why anybody would be surprised by the movie's message. 

Being a democracy everybody has a right to disagree with the movie's message but the over-the-top reaction of some on the right reflects more on them than on the movie. Here's a thought, why don't you come up with arguments to refute the message instead of crying about it? 

The reason of course, is because it cannot be refuted. The simple fact is the world has been run by men for the benefit of men for thousands of years. That has not changed but the feminist movement started nibbling away at the edges of that reality about 50 years ago and many men resent that. I have never understood why as nothing has fundamentally changed but I guess even a little change frightens some men. 

Personally, I have no problem with it.

I would highly recommend Oppenheimer. I would suggest you make of point of seeing it.

Barbie was enjoyable in some places but not in others but I would still say it is worth seeing if you have the opportunity.