What Of?

Something I won't soon forget: my sister told me last year, in 2009, than she believes the next generation will have a lower standard of living than the generation that preceded it.

Is this possible?

Historically, I don't know if there's been any modern generation that's been worse off than the one before it. Perhaps an argument could be made that the generation of the early 1920's had it better than the generation of the mid 1940's, but I doubt it...even with a major world war they had penicillin, insulin, rural electricity, access to ever greater amounts of ore, timber, coal, and oil...they would most certainly had believed themselves much better off than the last generation, although I am only speculating.

Today I found myself walking through a regional mall and was disillusioned with the heroic number of shoe stores, women's wear and cell phone kiosks. Dozens and dozens of them. These are only available because of the earlier massive investments in groundwater filtration, in the electrical grid, in our gold-plated interstate highways, in our sewage and drainage networks. These are the things overlooked by all those well-to-do housewives spending their afternoons shopping at 2:00 PM on a Tuesday in a mall. These women couldn't give a rat's ass about what it took to develop the infrastructure needed to allow them to go about their lives of leisure.

I'm most certainly biased and harsh regarding their "lifestyles." If indeed, some woman in 2021 strolls the future mall of america (lower italics mine), will she have access to even more consumer shit than a woman today? Will she be able to buy an Abercrombie and Fitch sweater cheaper than today? Will she be able to choose from five Coach handbags to carry around instead of just two?

Will the next generation of women be able to remain ignorant of our infrastructure, like those of today, and be able to stroll comfortably among three malls instead of just one?

When I say this, I mean not to disrespect women who are and who will be engaged in developing our infrastructure of tomorrow. Infrastructure is a male dominated "industry." I only highlight women particularly because this afternoon that's all I saw at the mall -- some with strollers, most without, but the vast, vast majority were either solo or with another female friend, all presumably living without the need for dual family incomes. These women are entitled. I see the same thing every day I'm off work in Elk Grove and go to the store or to the park. A whole class of women living lives of leisure.

Assume for a moment that my sister is correct, that the next generation will have a lower standard of living. She is really saying that people of the future will have less ability to satisfy their wants.

What are American people's wants today? Health care. Cheap foreign consumables. Annual vacations. Indoor jobs that don't require exertion. Life in a clean, comfortable environment.

If the next generation is entitled to an even better standard of living, what does that really mean? Access to even cheaper health care? Access to even more foreign consumables? Vacations twice or three times a year? Jobs in finance, insurance, marketing and real estate that never require the lifting of a single fucking finger? Waking up to bluebirds singing and flying in clean blue skies?

What of retirement? I today (as a gen Y-er) don't have it better than the boomer generation. A boomer who began work for SMUD in 1975 or 1985 could count on full retiree medical after 5 years of employment. I can count on full retiree medical only after 20 years of employment. Anyone hired at SMUD today can count on never more than 50% after 20 years. This one facet -- government benefits -- have been declining over time. So in this one realm, future public servants can expect less benefit. Regardless of your point of view on public pensions, I only offer here than the benefits of the next generation are less than those of prior generations. That is, the standard of living for the next generation of public employees will be lower than those earlier.

What of medical? Yes, we have far greater access to a wider range of treatments and therapies, but for a fewer number of people and at a far greater cost. Can we really expect that our access to medical services will be greater when they've been rising at 2X inflation for the past two decades?

What of infrastructure? The boomers of the 1970's and '80s had their bay bridges, their electric services, their water services...and they paid for them. But we've not kept pace with population growth and we've simply been relying on aging infrastructure to carry us along. This cannot last. Will we really expect that electricity will be even more reliable, that our freeways will have fewer potholes, that our water will have even less particulate matter?

What of the environment? If the so-called climate change trends continue, we have no one to thank but the previous generations who lived their entire lives beholden to fossil-fuels. Even if climate change isn't an issue, the next generation will still most certainly have to deal with an increased reliance on foreign sources of energy, to include shouldering the burden of an ever increasing military cost of securing said sources. The previous generations, totally beholden to the motor vehicle, have left us with a legacy of zero options for light rail, walkable communities, or local food and employment. Landfills from previous generations have already been filled and condemned, are no longer accessible, while our waste will require ever more heroic quantities of energy to dispose of.

I am of the opinion, along with my sister, that our next generation will indeed live lives of less prosperity than ours today. I am a natural pessimist and doomer, but damn, I see all these things and I don't assume that future technological marvels will somehow save us from these future calamities, from the future expenses of mitigation.

What of the future?