more difficult social trends

Here is another thing I am seeing going on in our ever-crumbling society. It is interesting to note, however, as I continue to complain, that things have always been getting worse, no matter whom you ask, and whenever you ask it. Yet, in truth, things remain about the same. The sad thing really, is that despite all the "progress", things remain about the same. (But, consider the source here. Me; old, cynical, on the verge of being bitter, and enjoying every moment of it.)

Anyway, what I have been noticing that for many people who have graduated from college over the last five years, things suck. If they go on for more education, to become a lawyer, scientist, doctor, or in finance, then they seem to have a chance. But getting out of school with a B.A. in any of the humanities soon leads to a $25 to $35K job that has little chance of going anywhere fast.

What this seems to have led to is that there are a lot of people who live in apartments, drive old cars, and slip into fun, but tenuous relationships. This seems to be because they feel that the money it takes to settle down and raise a family is not going to be coming in the foreseeable future.

I have had several patients who are within three years of thirty in both directions, who are in relationships that last a year or two, and then they kind of move on, sometimes just by moving to another city, or by getting bored and finding someone new. They often stay friends with the old partner because nothing bad happens. But if there is not going to be a family, and there isn't much money, then the entertainment factor is easier to find in a new relationship, with a new body to rub up against and a new mind to tell the old jokes to. These kids(?) seem to dabble in music and art, and to have a decent time, but they also have the sense that their lives are stuck and that figuring out how to get out of extended adolescence is going to be difficult.

Really, it isn't their fault. They are caught in a bad time in America, when they can't even be corporate clones, and they realize that they don't want to be. Hopefully, they will create their own communities, in which they can buy and sell to each other, support their own lifestyles in new, close to the neighborhood ways, and turn the consumer oriented values upside down.

It's much more difficult for them than it was for me. I just got yelled at by old folks because my hair was long.