Sad Inheritance

People in the United States born into what is often called "Generation X" -- generally speaking, folks born in the 60s and early 70s -- are poised to take the reins of leadership from our forebears. Folks in their late 20s to early 40s are well ensconced in the shrines of power, serving government, business and academia. Soon, my contemporaries will be winning seats in legislatures, receiving offers for top executive positions at major corporations and, in the not too distant future, we will have a President who was born after 1959. (Per the Constitution, only those of us born before 1974 would be eligible to run for President in 2008).

Generation X stands at the precipice. Soon, the direction of this nation, and by natural extension, the entire world, will depend on our decisions, our actions, our values and our morals.

May God have mercy on us all.

I don't say this because I think GenXers, as we are affectionately (or derisively) called, are incapable of making good decisions or amoral. Instead, I think that we are ill prepared to inherit the United States we're being given by our forebears.

For the first time in our 229 year history, we are seeing consistent declines in the ability of our nation to compete in the global marketplace. We may have "won" the Cold War, but we have fallen far short in so many other areas. Our entire economy floats on a cushion of foreign investment dollars. We spend so much more than we save, so much more than we earn, that we have become one of the world's biggest debtors. Our ability to do science and lead industry has been undercut by ill-advised tax cuts and a continual outsourcing of jobs to cheaper labor markets overseas. We buy goods that we deem are too expensive to manufacture in this country from foreign countries, turning a blind eye to the often inhumane conditions to which these foreign manufacturers subject their workers. So long as they keep turning out the cheap clothing, electronics and toys for which we seem to have insatiable appetites, we are happy.

Materialism is killing the soul of America.

I know I sound like a tree-hugging granola type. Anyone who knows me would tell you that's not what I am. I admit that I like buying cheap clothing. I'm using my own personal computer to write this treatise. I have a cell phone, an iPod (2 actually, but one was a freebie) and all the other urban trappings. Perhaps then I'm standing inside a humongous glass McMansion hurling boulders against my walls trying to assail the evils I see outside.

At least I recognize that there is a problem. I don't look at the earth's dwindling oil reserves and the warming of the atmosphere from burning fossil fuels and figure that these are only temporary issues that some genius will resolve through some new-fangled technology. I recognize that I can use less gas, and keep my apartment a little cooler in the winter and a little warmer in the summer, and use the train and the bus (or, God forbid, walk!) to get around the city. It sounds hokie, but it's true -- every little bit helps. I don't have any of them in front of me, but I've read so many interesting statistics recently regarding little things we could all do to decrease our collective energy demand. Driving 55MPH, swapping 2 or 3 incandescent light bulbs with fluorescent bulbs, turning the thermostat to 64 degrees during winter. It's incredible how many millions of barrels we could save each year by doing these things. In a nation that goes through multiple millions of barrels of oil a day, it doesn't seem like a big difference. And maybe that's why so few people are willing to change how they use energy -- it doesn't seem like it will buy us more than a few extra days of oil.

I wonder what it will be like in those last days of oil. Will we still think those few extra days weren't worth it?