How did we do?

My life didn’t turn out like I expected.”
– Roy Hobbs in the movie “The Natural”

When our oldest daughter was in sixth grade, I walked past her room and was jolted by the blaring sound of a Madonna song. In a near subconscious reflex I said – “Turn that crap down!!” I took one more step and nearly fell to my knees as I recalled those EXACT words coming from my Pop as I grooved out on a song from the Beatles “Abbey Road”. I had become my father. How could this be? How CAN this be?

In my youth, especially in high school and college, I KNEW, we ALL knew, that if only we could gain control, we would straighten things out in this world. Racism, poverty, pollution and other problems were simply symptoms of our parents’ and grandparents’ failed efforts to lead the world. When WE gained control – you know like the song from the musical “Hair” – “When the moon is in the Seventh House, And Jupiter aligns with Mars, then peace will guide the planets, and love will steer the stars “.

SOOO, how did all of that work out? Well I am sixty-eight now and I am forced to realize that in so many different ways, I am really not much different, WE, are not really so much different than the generations that preceded us. We yearn for progress. We have doubts as to how to achieve it. We want a better life for our children and grandchildren. We worry about the “next generation” and their ability and willingness to shoulder the burdens – just like our parents worried about us. And things weren’t like they thought they were going to be. Problems are a little more difficult than we thought too.

Let’s be fair we haven’t been total failures. We HAVE made astounding technological advances. And despite the concern for international competition our economy is still the engine that drives world commerce. And we HAVE reduced discrimination in many areas although racism, sexism and classism are still alive and thriving. But elimination of poverty? I don’t think so. Elimination of pollution – haven’t got there either. I guess that some of the problems that our elders struggled with are just as intractable to us. But is it true that there really is “nothing new under the sun” – that we didn’t move the needle at all? This might be just more aging boomer dribble, but I DO see some things that have changed – some for the better and some NOT for the better.

• We HAVE made gains in pollution – especially in water pollution – not that we have conquered that by any stretch. But if we are fair, we have to admit that there was a time in the 1970’s that our bodies of water were much lower quality than they are now. Now there IS the whole issue of climate change – I think everyone will agree that the climate is changing, but there are widely divergent views about what to do about that IF anything. There are many who are saying that we are nearing a tipping point in climate change – an existential tipping point. (I am starting to feel another blog post.)

• Elimination of poverty – Census data for 1972 – the year that I graduated – indicates that 8.8% of people age 18 to 64 lived in poverty – 15.1% of those under 18. The same data for 2017 indicates that 11.2% of people aged 18-64 lived in poverty and 17.5% of those under 18. This is a complex issue but it certainly doesn’t seem that we have eliminated poverty or even that we are going in the right direction. Whether one accepts that or not, there is firmer data that indicates that there is an ever-widening chasm between the rich and the poor. A Congressional Budget Office Study completed in 2011 showed that in stark contrast to earlier periods, in the period between 1979 and 2011, income growth for the top 1% of American earners grew at a rate of almost four times the rates seen in lower percentiles. The so-called middle class is fading from our society. I am sure that the reasons for that are many and varied and probably too complex for an old engineer like me. But I have a sense that this is not good – and more ominously, that this will not last. There is going to be some sort of correction – hopefully through peaceful and constructive dialog – that will change this balance. My Pop used to say: “Never do business with someone who has nothing to lose.” I fear that too many of us are approaching that kind of despair and are behaving accordingly.

• Our children will be better off than we were – This was a bedrock belief of our parent’s generation. My parents KNEW it. We would be better educated – go to college. We would get “big jobs” and live a much more affluent life than them. I am not sure that my children WILL be better off than we were – oh, oh, feels like another blog post.

So, what am I saying? I am saying that things are COMPLICATED – not at all like I thought they would be in 1972. I wish that weren’t so. People WANT simplicity – in politics we DEMAND simple answers. Nowadays any politician that talks about policy too much is unelectable. We need to resist the urge to generalize – we need to study complicated issues – to understand them and then apply our own best judgment as to what we think is right. And we need to resist the urge to be discouraged or cynical. We DO have problems, but we CAN work through them if we recognize that there are two sides to every story and that despite what we may think, we may not have all the wisdom on every issue. I guess it is clear that I didn’t have it in 1972 and I don’t have it now.