Silver Tongue

kenyatta:

amodernmanifesto:

Imagine that you’re twenty years old. You were born in 1996. You were five years old on 9/11. For as long as you can remember, the United States has been at war.

When you are twelve, in 2008, the global economy collapses. After years of bluster and bravado from President George W. Bush — who encouragedconsumerism as a response to terror — it seems your country was weaker than you thought.

In America, the bottom falls out fast. The adults who take care of you struggle to take care of themselves. Perhaps your parent loses a job. Perhaps your family loses its home.

In 2009, politicians claim the recession is over, but your hardship is not. Wages are stagnant or falling. The costs of health care, child care, and tuition continue to rise exponentially. Full-time jobs turn into contract positions while benefits are slashed. Middle-class jobs are replaced with low-paying service work. The expectations of American life your parents had when you were born — that a “long boom” will bring about unparalleled prosperity — crumble away.

Baby boomers tell you there is a way out: a college education has always been the key to a good job. But that doesn’t seem to happen anymore. The college graduates you know are drowning in student debt, working for minimum wage, or toiling in unpaid internships. Prestigious jobs are increasinglyclustered in cities where rent has tripled or quadrupled in a decade’s time. You cannot afford to move, and you cannot afford to stay. Outside these cities, newly abandoned malls join long abandoned factories. You inhabit a landscape of ruin. There is nothing left for you.

Every now and then, people revolt. When you are fifteen, Occupy Wall Street captivates the nation’s attention, drawing attention to corporate greed and lost opportunity. Within a year, the movement fades, and its members do things like set up “boutique activist consultancies.” When you are seventeen, the Fight for 15 workers movement manages to make higher minimum wage a mainstream proposition, but the solutions politicians pose are incremental. No one seems to grasp the urgency of the crisis. Even President Barack Obama, a liberal Democrat — the type of politician who’s supposed to understand poverty — declares that the economy has recovered.

I know stuff like this has been a topic of conversation on my dash for years but this bit was a nice articulation:

Capitalism, in other words, holds less appeal in an era when the invisible hand feels like a death grip. Americans under 20 have had little to no adult experience in a pre-Great Recession economy. Things older generations took for granted — promotions, wages that grow over time, a 40-hour work week, unions, benefits, pensions, mutual loyalty between employers and employees — are increasingly rare.

As a consequence, these basic tenets of American work life, won by labor movements in the early half of the twentieth century, are now deemed “radical.” In this context, Bernie Sanders, whose policies echo those of New Deal Democrats, can be deemed a “socialist” leading a “revolution”. His platform seems revolutionary only because American work life has become so corrupt, and the pursuit of basic stability so insurmountable, that modest ambitions — a salary that covers your bills, the ability to own a home or go to college without enormous debt — are now fantasies or luxuries.

  1. eddiescorner reblogged this from thelordanubis
  2. thelordanubis reblogged this from villageidiocy
  3. soyala04 reblogged this from theonlyleftydesk
  4. villageidiocy reblogged this from theonlyleftydesk
  5. cyborgspoonie reblogged this from theonlyleftydesk
  6. theonlyleftydesk reblogged this from theonlyleftydesk
  7. ill-d0-it-later reblogged this from gahdamnpunk
  8. my-sideblogs-sideblog reblogged this from official-arnie-nutts
  9. anunsafeneighborhood reblogged this from maxknightley
  10. psychicexpertlover reblogged this from catraboobwindow
  11. mialouwho-17 reblogged this from sentimental-apathy
  12. beautifuck-xo reblogged this from therainbowgorilla
  13. christa-nina reblogged this from theonlyleftydesk
  14. swankyangles reblogged this from sarkos
  15. sarkos reblogged this from perfectcromulence
  16. mechanical-angel reblogged this from ocean-stuck
  17. ocean-stuck reblogged this from adult-link42
  18. crochetdragons reblogged this from mercysewerpyro
  19. thejvalentino reblogged this from mercysewerpyro
  20. mercysewerpyro reblogged this from landymandy
  21. tenaciousdecapitator reblogged this from morphimus
  22. egg-squid reblogged this from morphimus
  23. gigglingabouteverything reblogged this from morphimus
  24. dat-eyebrows reblogged this from chloes-moth-dimension
  25. intran reblogged this from morphimus
  26. lemonchickenman reblogged this from morphimus
  27. commune-or-nothing posted this