Economic Realities for the Next Generation

The July 4th week is always a busy one here in TV. Guests, picnics, parades etc. All of the kids flew in. A storm of changes are in the wind for all of them. This economy has brought upheaval to so many peoples lives, and the burden seems especially heavy on the generation that is entering the workforce today. Erika is safely home and rested after her trip, and my youngest is getting ready for a complete change of lifestyle. The cousins (Steph and Brian) also came in to visit and it looks like change is in the cards for them too.

Erika has recently completed her teaching degree. She is going to work on a City council race in NYC for the election season. She cannot find a teaching job here in Florida, (or anywhere else) as there is a moratorium on hiring right now. She sees this as a good thing, for now, as it allows her to follow some long time dreams. She has always wanted to live in NYC and about to do it, and she has been interested in the Peace Corps and is looking into that option. She has a good friend that has taken a job in southern California, and she may get a chance to spend some time with her on the West coast. When you get lemons, make lemonade.

My youngest, Briana has been living in Ohio and driving the big rigs. She has made the difficult decision to leave the job and go back to school. Although the money was good the job was very hard and involved long hours and her health was already beginning to suffer. She was also away from family and friends and that has become too much for her to tolerate. She has a year of college completed in criminal justice but has decided to try the health care profession for a change. She will be moving back in with us and that will be an adjustment for all of us. I look forward to having her here with me but am also aware of the challenges moving an adult child back into her parent’s home will bring.

My Niece, Stephanie is a victim of the auto industry collapse. She worked at the same plant that we are retired from. This plant supported Lockport, a small town in western NY, and employed over 11,000 people when we started in 1976. It is now down to around 1500 employees and her job is gone. She would like to move down here to Florida because she feels like Lockport is dying. Steph has noticed that crime is up and it seems like something new is being boarded up everyday. She has qualified for retraining under the stimulus plan and is going to welding school next month. I worry about where this generation will be if manufacturing does not rebound.

Her brother, Brian, recently landed an entry level job at a bank and has given up his dream of going to St Bonaventure to study Forensic Science. Fortunately, the bank offers an opportunity to go to business school. That is not what he intended to do but in this economy sometimes you have to do the practical thing, and sadly let a dream go for now.

If there was historically an upside to war it was the economic prosperity that followed. In the past, a war time economy was fueled by steel and weapons production, but now those industries are all off shore. We should all be worried about the larger implications of this dependency on tentative relationships with foreign producers (like China). If these relationships sour, where will we turn? Remember Rosie the Riveter? Where will she work?