Category Archives: Financial Crisis

Why Generation Y Should Be Unhappy

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The reason why young people are so unhappy, as explained by Tim Urban of "wait but why"

The source of youthful discontent in a nutshell, according to Tim Urban of “wait but why”

Pseudo-sociological trend pieces are a dime a dozen these days, but a recent one called Why Generation Y Yuppies Are Unhappy stands out because it’s apparently been the center of much intergenerational debate on social media. I found it interesting because many of the critiques of “Generation Y” are similar to those used against previous generations such as “hippies” and “slackers” (and also just about anyone who questions the status quo).

To set up the argument, author Tim Urban constructs a strawman caricature called Lucy who’s a member of Generation Y, “the generation born between the late 1970s and the mid 1990s. She’s also part of a yuppie culture that makes up a large portion of Gen Y.” Given that the middleclass has been in decline for some time now, I’m not sure why anyone would think yuppie culture makes up a “large portion” of Gen Y. He even created a pejorative acronym for people like Lucy: “Gen Y Protagonists & Special Yuppies, or GYPSYs. A GYPSY is a unique brand of yuppie, one who thinks they are the main character of a very special story.” The reason for the unhappiness is reduced to an equation: Happiness=Reality-Expectations

Though overly reductionist, the equation makes sense because one can increase happiness by raising one’s reality or reducing expectations. However, like most people who support the status quo and/or get all their information from corporate sources, Tim mostly focuses on why Lucy needs to lower expectations because to raise reality would take collective action and systemic change (and no, “picking yourself up by the bootstraps” is not enough). It’s much easier to condemn the individual with typical attacks leveled against young people and idealists who voice grievances: you’re overly ambitious, you think you’re special, and you have a faulty perception of the world.

To be fair, he seems to be trying to describe not an entire generation, but a specific type of person of the generation (perhaps an annoying coworker?). However, at a time when tuition rates and student debt are at an all time high and so many people just out of college are unemployed, underemployed, or stuck in unfulfilling dead-end jobs they’re overqualified for, it’s easy to see why such an article might strike a collective nerve. And funny pictures with trite platitudes like “The current world is bubbling with opportunity for an ambitious person to find flowery, fulfilling success” or “You can become special by working really hard for a long time”, won’t make them feel any better.

There are countless better explanations for rising levels of unhappiness and discontent not just among Generation Y, but for 99% of the country. The biggest factors are explained succinctly in the videos below:

Government Shutdown: Hate the Players, Hate the Game

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Today marks the first day of the latest government shutdown due to failure of the House and Senate to agree on a spending bill. The main point of contention was Obamacare, which Republicans fought to repeal or delay. This conflict can be seen as a symptom of political polarization which, as multiple studies have shown, increases as economic inequality increases. This might seem counter-intuitive to those aware of how both parties receive money from the same corporations. Still, they get paid varying amounts from different corporations and they need to at least appear to be responsive to needs of constituents. Differences between the majority of Democrat and Republican representatives are analogous to differences between neoliberals and neoconservatives. There’s subtle differences in approach and emphasis but both ultimately serve the corporate-security state.

Many will blame the shutdown on Republicans who oppose Obamacare, but will it really increase access to affordable healthcare? It may have been better to delay implementation in order to work out glitches in the bureaucracy and computer systems. Obamacare has already had the unfortunate side-effect of businesses replacing full-time positions with part-time positions, and without any controls over the rising cost of premiums we should expect to see further rate increases. There may be minor improvements but far less than what would have been provided through single-payer and public option alternatives. If we had a Medicare-for-all system as Green Party candidate Jill Stein proposed, we’d have a system people already support providing comprehensive coverage with far less bureaucratic waste and at a fraction of the cost.

One of the many sickening aspects of the government shutdown is that government agencies that truly need to be shutdown, like the NSA, CIA, FBI, DEA, etc., remain essentially untouched. What will be shutdown or reduced are services related to health, work safety, food assistance, housing, education, parks and museums, regulatory agencies, and labor. Once again, money junkies in power have demonstrated their incompetence at doing things they care little about (ie. providing jobs and services that actually help poor and working class people). However, they have proven to be extremely good at funneling more money to themselves and their cronies while consolidating power. On the surface, the shutdown may appear self-defeating, but both parties can benefit by blaming the other side and can more easily push through questionable legislation in an atmosphere of crisis. Just like the sequestration last Spring, it’s a form of austerity which benefits big banks while screwing over average citizens.

American Apartheid Starts in Detroit

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A recent op-ed from Glen Ford, executive editor of Black Agenda Report, describes the situation in Detroit as the nexus of a new American apartheid in which inhabitants of largely Black urban centers are denied meaningful votes and ability to defend collective and individual property from the wealthy elite. In reaction to this alarming trend, on October 5 and 6, the International People’s Assembly will hold a conference, Against Banks and Against Austerity, in Detroit. Ford describes the goals of the conference in greater detail in this excerpt:

The International Peoples Assembly conference demands that the so-called debt to the banks be canceled – not just for Detroit, which supposedly owes Wall Street $22 billion, but for cities, school systems, states and countries around the world that have been purposely made into debt slaves for the rich. Workers pensions and jobs, and the vital services they provide to the community, must be guaranteed. This is a critical demand, since the emergency management regime in Pontiac, Michigan, has stripped the municipal workforce down to only 20 people for a city of 60,000. The unemployed must be put back to work repairing the damage inflicted on Detroit by the bankers’ foreclosure and disinvestment policies. Public education, which is rapidly being privatized, must be restored to the public sphere and fully funded.

Read the full article here: http://www.blackagendareport.com/content/detroit-nexus-new-american-apartheid

For those not familiar with the “emergency management regime” Ford referenced, it has been a topic of intense debate in Michigan for at least the past couple of years. The so-called emergency management legislation first introduced in 2011, was supposedly designed to help local government survive financial crises but also removed all powers from democratically elected officials and transferred governing power, including the power to make local laws, to appointed emergency managers (who are not required to obey local laws such as city charters or ordinances). Though the law was voted down by Michigan voters, a revised version was passed in December of 2012 during a lame duck session.

More details about Michigan’s “emergency manager” law here:

http://sugarlaw.org/projects/democracy-emergency/

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-alexander-bullock/detroit-elections_b_1442049.html

This past September 11th, citizens of Detroit experienced a harmful consequence of the emergency management powers when the city lost power during a heat wave that week. As described by Randa Morris at Addicting Info.:

In the city of Detroit, power outages left people stranded in elevators, trapped four hours in the blistering heat. Hundreds were evacuated from buildings in the downtown area, traffic lights did not function, public transportation was disabled and 1,400 sites across the city were without power. Wayne State University and other key buildings still remained closed, the following day. All of this after the city’s power supply supposedly failed.

…The problem is that the city’s power supply never failed.

On September 12th, 2013, Bill Nowling casually stated that the city’s power outages were intentional. Officials and citizens working in the city were given no warning before the electricity was cut off. Law enforcement officials working in the Hall of Justice had no time to prepare. Senior citizens and disabled citizens using elevators in the city’s downtown district had no way to know what was coming. The entire criminal justice system was shut down without notice. Wayne State University Campus was just one of many sites evacuated under emergency conditions. Traffic lights across the city stopped working. 1,400 public and private locations were left without power. And the entire thing was intentional, to “send a message” to the people of Detroit. Bill Nowling works in the office of Kevyn Orr, Detroit’s Emergency Manager.

Read the full story here: http://www.addictinginfo.org/2013/09/14/detroit-blackout/

So this unannounced power shutdown which endangered the health and safety of an entire city can be attributed to a single individual only accountable to Governor Rick Snyder, who appointed him as Emergency Manager in March. And what are Kevyn Orr’s credentials? He was the lead attorney who collected over a million dollars representing Chrysler during its bankruptcy proceedings in 2009. Private emails uncovered by labor activist Robert Davis indicate that Orr stood to make millions more in legal fees by facilitating Detroit’s bankruptcy which was filed on July 18, 2013. Orr has also been behind efforts to privatize Detroit’s energy grid according to this WSWS.org article by Khara Sikhan:

The Detroit Public Lighting Department (DPLD), has been systematically defunded for decades, and Democratic Mayor Dave Bing proposed to fully privatize the lighting department in 2012.

In mid-August, Kevyn Orr fired DPLD director Richard Tenney as part of his plan to restructure the city government. Orr announced in June that the city would sell off the public lighting grid to DTE Energy, in line with Bing’s proposal.

The drive to privatize the city’s lighting department, far from benefiting the city’s residents, would be only another means of extracting profit from the city.

Read the full article here: http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2013/09/14/powe-s14.html?view=print

Channel Surfing

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A compilation of some of the best non-corporate alternative news clips from the past few days.

9/17 On Episode 237 of Breaking the Set,  Abby Martin and guests commemorate the second Occupy Wall Street anniversary.

9/18 At the WeAreChange channel, Luke Rudkowski interviews Everett Stern, a former employee of HSBC who blew the whistle on the company’s criminal schemes.

9/19 Ben Swann of Reality Check takes a look at three of the biggest current controversies surrounding Monsanto (one of the world’s most hated corporations).

9/19 Global Research TV’s James Corbett reports on inconsistencies and video manipulation that calls into question the official narrative of the Syrian chemical weapons attack.

9/19 Secular Talk gives a blistering critique of John McCain’s recent Pravda op-ed.

Joy Camp and WeAreChange.org introduce the iPhone 5nSa.

No matter what political reasons are given for war, the underlying reason is always economic. – A.J.P. Taylor

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With so much attention on arguments for and against a potential World War 3, it’s almost easy to forget about economic problems though the issues overlap. To remind us (if we did need reminding), a number of great articles have come out recently.

Two headlines at OpEd News explain how economic pressures play a part in mass opposition against the war and reasons why even without another war, America is headed towards a greater financial crisis.

Though corporate media tells us we’re in an economic recovery, the truth is it’s a recovery for the rich, a recession for the rest.

A new UC Berkeley report documents the growing gulf between the rich and poor in the U.S. since 2009, while on a global scale a new “superclass” has emerged who are 94% male, white, and connected to financial corporations, governments, and the military, as reported in this expose on the Financial Core of the Transnational Capitalist Class.

On related notes, ever wonder how much money missile strikes cost and how many CEOs were prosecuted for their role in the financial crisis? The answers will tell you something about the priorities of the U.S. government.

Greg Palast article about the “End-Game” memo: http://www.gregpalast.com/larry-summers-and-the-secret-end-game-memo/