POST # 189
On a stroll to the market this morning, I passed by the local news agent. A headline in the "Globe and Mail" caught my eyes. Above the fold, there is a photograph of a smiling older couple, and the two captions read as follows:
"SO LONG SUCKERS" and "GOOD LUCK WITH THE NEXT COUPLE DECADES"
Silly, silly me. After reading the above quotes, for a brief moment I began to think that the editors at this national newspaper had finally come to the acceptance phase of NTHE (near term human extinction), and decided to make it front page news. After all, it
should be front page news.
Alas, it was just an article about the aging baby boomer cohort, and even though I didn't read the article, it's easy to work out the gist of it. In other words, it's the baby boomers saying to the younger generation, too bad and tough luck that you weren't born when we were, as we've got all the assets now, and you're left holding the bag. It kind of reminds me of the Charlie Brown Halloween, where all the other kids get the goodies, and poor old Charlie Brown ends up with a rock. A comment by lwa at Nature Bats Last sums it up pretty well:
Mom, Dad … there seem to be no jobs after university in this new globalized world you voted for, and also no possibility for me or any of my peers to purchase a home to live in either, like you and guys had in your generation’s era.”
Oh shucks Henry, this new generation sure does do a lot of complaining doesn’t it? Say dear, the real estate value of our two cottages and three rental apartments just rose again, isn’t that swell?” How about you and I go to the coffee shop and celebrate by getting one of those grumpy University grads to make us a nice double latte?
.
I imagine that the article doesn't mention the fact that it was
cheap energy via
fossil fuels that we have had the use of for so many decades (certainly all of the decades that the baby boomers have been alive for), that has provided for all of this accumulation of assets, and now that the cheap and easy to get at energy is long gone, so are the dreams of the younger generation, even though I doubt that very many of them understand just why things have been going sideways for them. After all, they managed to get their University degree, and they all have smart phones. Life's good, right??
However,
much more important than that, is the fact that as a result of the burning of all of these fossil fuels, we have now managed to
destroy the very habitat that we, humans, and all other life on the planet depend upon for our very existence. Fossil fuel usage has increased dramatically in the past few decades, and the baby boomers of the world most certainly have burned up a significant part of what was available.
So, a better article perhaps, could have been written about the effects of industrial civilization, its imminent demise, and the catastrophe that it has wrought on the earth, but of course, that will never happen. Pretty soon, I think that we're all going to be feeling like poor old Charlie Brown, baby boomers included. "Hey Charlie Brown, what did you get?" CB: "
I got a rock."
So as I have stated before on this blog, it's always about the economy. That's what makes the headlines for now. However, I don't imagine that it will be too long into the future, where most people, including all of those baby boomers, are going to have more important things to worry about than just how they're going to spend all of those assets in their retirement years.
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On the house/pet sitting front, I have a new furball to care for. Actually this is my third time with Shadow the cat. He's a real treat, and very easy to spend time with, so I will try to keep him as happy as possible while I am here. On day one, he lived up to his namesake, just a shadow of his former self. I went out for a while and when I returned he was nowhere to be found. Eventually, after my third look under the bed, I saw his eyes staring back at me. Phew!!! I wouldn't want to lose him on the very first day, or any day for that matter.
A BIT BLURRY, BUT YOU GET THE IDEA- HE'S ONE BIG FURBALL
Shadow has moved since our last visit. He's gone from a single family home cat, to a CONDO CAT. He has always been an indoor cat, so this transition doesn't seem to have bothered him one bit. And now, he's on the third floor, and surrounded by trees which are usually full of birds. So he literally has a bird's eye view. Let's see, a warm place to sleep, food on demand, a cat friendly house sitter and a bird's eye view. What more could Shadow ask for?
Happy trails,
Paul
The Thoughtful Wanderer
