Impacts of another lost generation to come

History does repeat itself on a grand scale. The generation of young people entering their career lives since 2008 and for the following decade, face some of the greatest challenges in our history. For years our country and others have encouraged young people to pursue college or university education. The reasons were far more mundane than broadening one’s horizons. Education, even a general Bachelor of Arts degree, was supposed to be the path to a good, secure job with strong earning power. Our system encouraged young people, and still does, to load up on debt to pay for this education. The education financing model appeared to work until recent years when global and North American economic concerns wiped out the kinds of jobs these young people are capable of doing with their general education. The consequence of this model combined with a prolonged economic downturn is a generation of young people facing uncertainty. They are saddled with high college/university education debt, uncertain job futures and uncertainty about making lifestyle commitments such as marriage, children or buying a house. And many of them are working at part-time jobs, or low paying jobs that prevent them from joining the consumer economy. The consumer economy, the practice of new household formation, and the acquisition of stuff drives most of the economy in North America. Even a small drop in consumer habits from uncertainty among young people can stall or block the growth needed to get the continent out of the economic slump it is sitting in right now. Not all of the young generation will face these challenges. Those with good stable jobs, those trained in skills needed most by the market, those living in booming regions like the Canadian Prairies or some oil-rich regions of the United States are doing quite well thank you. There is an argument that most of the young educated people who are unemployed or not well employed, made the wrong choices in life, or were encouraged to make the wrong choice of education. There is truth to that statement. The fact remains that a significant portion of the population has fallen victim to an economic depression not of their making. The global economic mess was caused by careless bankers and investment gurus, government overspending to stay in power and some countries using deficits to finance wars. Someday an author might call these victims the Lost Generation. That name has been taken. People from the years 1929-1939 have often been referred to as the Lost Generation. People from that era went through much the same circumstances as today’s generation. Few differences existed other than technology and education. Most of the population had less than high school education in the first lost generation. And job skills did not need much technology. A shovel, a pick and a little money could create a lot of jobs that people wanted to do. Government spending then was able to help re-build the economy. Nowadays everything requires expensive technology and few jobs requiring a strong back and hearty biceps exist. The Canadian situation was described best in the oral history written by author Barry Broadfoot in his Ten Lost Years. The Winnipegborn Broadfoot took his tape recorder across the country and told firsthand the individual stories as recollected years later by Great Depression victims. One common belief of his subjects was that no such Depression would be allowed by the better educated, more vocal people of the times. Aside from the sputtering Occupy Movement and the publicity about the one per cent of wealthy population increasing its already huge share of national wealth, little has happened to change the situation. The Great Depression had its counterpart to the ‘one per centers’. During that time period, the country’s ills were blamed on 52 millionaires, who, according to that belief controlled the Canadian economy. The Lost Generation of today has tremendous impact on the country’s social system. The impact will be felt from increased health care costs in future to the need for pensions by a generation unable to save for retirement. Those impacts were felt by governments as the generation from the 1930s aged.

Ron Walter can be reached at ronjoy@sasktel.net