Why the Great Recession Gives Me Hope for Humanity

Today I read an article about the surprising changes seen by department store Santas in the kids' wishes. Instead of wishing for toys, they were asking for socks, shoes, eyeglasses. Yeah, it's sad that someone as young as five would be asking Santa for a job for his father, but I tend to look on the bright side of things.

America is learning some hard lessons right now, but by so learning, I think we can expect something of a Renaissance of Western culture and more to the point, a resurgence of what makes America great.

Look at what the Depression did for America, what it gave  (at least from what I can tell): People who knew the value of a dollar, who understood that hard work and general productivity was essential to survival, people who learned and proved their mettle by surmounting obstacles and making things go right in spite of all. These people were tough, they were effective, they were honest, and they weren't whiny assholes.

I do realize I speak in broad generalities and gross simplicities, but hear me out.

The current "Entitlement Generation", to me, smacks of the Victorian-Era "idle rich"; and we all know how those guys turned out. Anyone who thinks the world owes them anything is going to be getting a ruder-than-usual surprise if they're just hitting the job markets around now.

Compared to Generations X and Y, kids today are facing some tough shit, it's true. And it does make me a little sad, that a lot of kids are having to grow up a little faster. But only a little sad. Because prolonging childhood into the 20s hasn't done the world that much good. It's just given us the "Me Generation", the "Entitlement Generation", slackers, emos, it goes on. People, in short, who think they deserve the fruits of civilization simply by having been born in one, rather than by contributing to it.

It's given us reality TV, breast implants, MySpace suicides and Tila Tequila. It's given us a country with a ridiculously disproportionate, twisted set of priorities.

The great men in history got their start early. Part of it was the educational system at the time: until I think the 20th century, schooling often included apprenticeships, which began as young as ten or twelve but rarely older than 14. Or of course the kids in rural areas were intimately involved in the farm work, which is where the current school schedule came from.

The point is, being made to take responsibility at an early age does make for healthier, saner and entirely less emo populations.

In present time, I think it's pretty hard to hide the fact that times are tough from any kid with half a brain. And I truly believe that not only will they learn from parents having to rise to new levels of ingenuity, but they will learn that the same thing is required of them, to make it out there. Knowing early on that the world isn't all rainbows and puppy dogs might make them more determined to make it so.

The children of the last significant economic downturn gave us the moon.

What will the children of today give us?