>Delivered-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >Delivered-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >Mime-Version: 1.0 >X-Sender: (Unverified) >Date: Mon, 22 Apr 2002 12:05:16 -0700 >To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >Subject: [workfare] Reality bites Gen-X myth >Sender: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >Status: > >http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2002/04/21/1019233294317.html > >Reality bites Gen-X myth > >By Simon Castles >April 22 2002 > >At 31, I don't own property or shares. Or a car. I was unemployed >for 18 months after graduating. For a time I thought the only work >my honours degree was going to get me was casual shifts in the >hospitality industry. > >I take anti-depressants to help me with anxiety - though I remain >anxious about the likelihood I will be unemployed again. Hence I hold >on to the small amount of money I have saved, in readiness for the >"inevitable". My second-rate tertiary education has left me with a >large debt. > >OK, I know what you're thinking. Boo-hoo, buddy, boo-bloody-hoo. And >you're quite right, of course. No use complaining, no one listens, and >all that. But I sense that the time has well and truly come for >someone to reclaim the term Generation X for the malcontents and >cynics among us. For the whingers like me, basically. > >There has been an astonishing semantic shift in recent years that >desperately needs redressing. Where once Generation X was >associated with being disempowered, disengaged, slack and ironic, >now - if the media is to be believed - it's all about being cyber savvy, >independent and funky. Goodbye idle cynicism and introspection, >hello stock options and the latte life. > >Somewhere along the line - and the Internet undoubtedly played a big >role in all this - a myth took hold that painted all Gen-Xers as >go-get-'em freelance agents; as international bright young things >eschewing traditional working lives and corporate ladders as they >set about making their first million on a funky e-dream. > >An article in Time magazine this month is headed "Gen-Xers aren't >slackers after all". Among other things, the piece tells us that four >out of five new enterprises are the work of Xers, and that most >Gen-X women will accumulate 30 pairs of shoes before they save >$30,000 for their retirement. (Despite my suspicions, this glam bit >of reporting was not filed by Carrie Bradshaw, the fictional >journalist from Sex and the City. I checked.) > >Time magazine really goes in for this stuff. In fact, the magazine >probably started it. A cover story from several years back was >headlined "Great Xpectations" and ran with the tag "Slackers? >Hardly. The so-called Generation X turns out to be full of go-getters >who are just doing it - but their way". > >And apparently we've been doing it our way ever since. A "snapshot" >of Generation X in The Age this year presented a bunch of spunky >young things at a successful new-media company in St Kilda. There >they were - Brett, Ross, Jade and Steve - mixing a creative work >environment with a great lifestyle blissfully free of mortgages and >marriage. It read like an episode of The Secret Life of Us. > >Meanwhile the Herald Sun says "Gen X future may lie in sipping >latte", The Australian runs the headline "Gen X career women >eschew flash, count cash", and the Daily Telegraph gleefully reports >the tech stock bust by saying that "Generation X was left crying in >its cappuccino". > >Like most myths, the present one about Generation X serves a >useful function. If you can portray young people as winners in the >new century, as having nothing more to worry about than where to >get a good coffee, it makes it that much easier to ignore the losers. >But the losers are still there. > >The new-economy jackpot might have thrown up its share of >incredible success stories, but a jackpot is still a jackpot. We should >not blind ourselves to the fact that, by and large, the negative >consequences of two decades of extraordinary economic and social >change have fallen particularly heavily on the shrugging shoulders of >Generation X. > >The facts tell the story. Between 1981 and 1996, according to the >Committee for Economic Development of Australia, the number of >25 to 34-year-olds in full-time employment dropped from 78 per >cent to 60 per cent. > >The average wealth of individuals in this group also dropped - by 14 >per cent between 1986 and 1998, according to a study by the >National Centre for Economic and Social Modelling. This, despite a >boom in asset prices. > >The number of 20-and 30-somethings seeking to buy a home >dropped as well, from 49 per cent to 38 per cent in little over a >decade. It is predicted many Gen-Xers will remain trapped in the >private rental market forever. At the end of two decades of >massive economic change, young people now face entering a job >market in which the number of full-time positions available to them >has fallen more than 50 per cent, apprenticeship placements have >dropped about 45 per cent, and on-the-job training has been cut >clear in half. > >Add to this mix escalating higher-education fees, massive job >insecurity, and a boom in "McJobs" (low-pay, no-future positions in >the service sector) and it is a hardly surprising the CEDA report >warns of one in five young people being at risk of "entrenched >disadvantage". > >True, I am unlikely to be one of them. I am blessed with the one >thing that has prevented many Xers from going to the wall years >ago - supportive, middle-class parents. A residue of anxiety and >anger stays with me, nevertheless, just as it does for many people >my age. > >But I'm sure to most readers I just come across as a whiner - as >bratty, pessimistic and cynical. I can live with that. It is closer to >the truth, at least, than a myth that would try to portray me as a >savvy go-getter - as someone luxuriating in the froth of another >caffe latte. > >Simon Castles is editor of The Big Issue and a fellow of >OzProspect.org >E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > >-------------------------------------------------------------------- > Workfare-defeat: a list for discussion about the international > resistance to workfare To subscribe, post to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> with > "subscribe workfare-defeat" in the BODY of the message > ** This material may be freely distributed, provided this ** > ** footer is included in full. ** >
