Barbarians At The Gates

There was a scene in last season's episodes of The Walking Dead where the town needed all hands on deck in an impending battle with the enemy of the non-dead variety. The Governor called for all hands and a Woodbury citizen protested that some of those hands were just teenage children.

"Teenagers" replied The Governor, "are a 20th century concept."

He then reiterated his command. ALL hands on deck. It was the 21st century, after all.

Teenagers are rather recent development in society. They are also becoming a vanishing breed. For all intents and purposes, teenagers began with the post-war, baby boom generation. The fifties brought about the first generation of teens that were expected to be consumers and enjoy life before going off to college or work in the trades, marry and raise their own children to be consumers. They rocked and rolled and watched TV. It was a great time to be a kid and it was only going to get better.

There were always privileged children who lived the easy life and had the latest this and that, but the end of WWII brought about a mass of children whose parents wanted the best for them. The American Dream was born. It's the American dream as we've known it, collectively. Your version may vary but it likely includes your kids having Xbox and maybe working a few hours at the mall to purchase their own games .or weed.

In the old days, lots of kids went to school perhaps just long enough to learn how to write their names and do some ciphering before they went off to work the farm or support the family in the local factory or coal mine. Most kids worked. It was generally hard, filthy labor that paid little. Children died, and lost limbs. It was just the way it was. The American dream for most then was to eat. For the entrepreneurs, the dream was the rewards of hard work- other people's hard work. That dream still lives on.

I think it's that dream that has been eroding that middle class dream of shopping malls and Rock N' Roll High Schools.

You and I would think that shopping malls filled with teenagers buying stuff would be awesome for anyone's version of the American dream but, that's why we're stupid losers who don't have corporations. I've said it before on these pages: As cool as we think we are, we can be replaced.We can be the third-world labor force. I'm sorry- what did you think breaking Unions and not-raising the minimum wage would do?

It's all well and good to screw the guy who puts your Big Mac together out of fair wages but, why should you be immune? I know you think you're valuable at your job but the reality is that a kid fresh out of college can do it for 1/4 the cost of paying you. Not as well- not at first-but your company doesn't care about that. They were paying you $80k This kid will do your job for $20k. Do the math. Remember when you said these people should take any job- regardless of pay? Your job is any job. Why didn't you see that coming?

Well, they forgot to tell you that part. Rather conveniently for them, wouldn't you say?

Aside from the Union-busting and the haggling over the minimum and the quest to eliminate it instead, they also have a major boner for the handouts that you despise- welfare and unemployment compensation. You may have noticed that Social Security has been referred to as an "entitlement" as has "medicare" even though you, me and most all of us pay into that. They have just about succeeded in convincing idiots that SS is 'welfare'. The alternative is the lottery of 401k's I guess. What could go wrong there, he asked, pointing to Wall Street ...

I think two years ago Missouri dropped their Child Labor laws, rather quietly. Nike sweatshops didn't spring up overnight in St. Louis but, why did they do that? When Mitt Romney was caught on tape with his 47%  comment, he had already openly admitted that it was tough to compete with China when they had to use barbed wire fences and guards to keep out people who would force their way in to work for 98 cents per hour. And how 'bout that trampoline spread out in the Atrium of the dormitory for Happy Fun Hour? How do we (them) compete with that?

Well, for starters, eliminate the minimum wage, welfare and other safety trampolines- nets- that people could count on because those things, along with Unions and retirement money, make people soft and complacent and not the thrifty working class necessary for a strong country. Weird but, we were strong when we had all those things. Then they made us weak? How did that happen? That was the old days. I guess they just didn't work out and we have to go back to the old, old days. That must be it.