Dr. Lane’s Thoughts XXXIV

But wait, there’s more. On the right, expertise isn’t just considered worthless, it’s viewed as disqualifying. People with actual knowledge of a policy area — certainly those with any kind of professional reputation — are often excluded from any role in shaping policy. Preference is given to the incompetent — often the luridly incompetent.”

2)  It is very tough to be young today.  Despite how every reader who has children is utterly convinced that their kids have it easier and that the parents have made it much easier for their children than they had it at the same age, they are wrong.  

There is a much more uncomfortable reality for young people today.  

Jobs are scarcer than ever, prices for almost everything are out of proportion to wages, most people are priced out of the housing market (either in buying a house or affording rent) and gender identification has made all romantic relationships both a minefield of pronouns and of slippery emotions as their age bracket explores a spectrum of sexual attraction and gender identification that could change at any moment with any individual person.

It is not the parents who are to blame for this miasma of discomfort but all of the tools that we want to offer our children do not work in 2021. This is not a ‘generation gap’ problem reminiscent of the 1960s but a recognition that nothing that is familiar exists for young people: there are too many people of equal skills trying for too few opportunities with no group excluded due to gender or orientation or ability.  For the best reasons possible, everyone is supposed to be treated fairly but that means that more people are trying for jobs that pay less than ever since it is a market that favors employers.

In the ‘old days’ White men had it easier and everyone accepted this reality.  If you were not a white male you knew that it would be harder to gain an equal footing to a white man but it was possible without losing your personal identity.  That is not true today: everyone has learned that the truth was just smoke and mirrors – the equality of opportunity has only exposed that ‘getting there’ is also demeaning.  The former truth of a ‘white man’s salary’ has been replaced with a ‘lowball offer’ that threatens all job applicants with potential poverty for taking the low-paying jobs that all applicants are offered no matter their race, gender, orientation, or skills.  Now ‘equality’ just means “equal chance to work at a job and live with your parents”.

We need unions more than ever.  We need a collective voice that forces management to treat employees fairly and does not favor any one group over another.  Hopefully, the ‘new unions’ with be less corrupt and serve their members better.

3) The possible lifespan of people is growing longer each year.  This means that it is possible that we are pushing young people to make career choices that they will need to stick with not until they are 65 but until they are 85!  Among these choices are jobs that have no need for someone who is not strong and young.  We will soon have a pool of people who are too healthy to retire but too infirm to be of much use on a job.

I hope that the ‘silent hand of the market’ will find a use for this growing population.

4) I recall vividly the problems of being poor.  We were not homeless but many of the comfortable ‘necessities’ that come from growing up in a nice neighborhood were not part of our lives.

The most comical were the advice columns would offer (or even other people) for how to save money that were so out-of-touch that they were useless (much like the people offering the advice).

I remember these being common ‘suggestions’:

a. “Don’t eat out as often.”  This was being told to a person who can’t eat out at all.

b. “Cut back on the cost of gifts.”  When you don’t have money you don’t have many friends.

c. “Use regular gasoline and stop buying premium.” Ah yes, the cost of a product for a convenience I did not have.

d. “Find cheap or free ways to spend time with your friends.” Ah yes, the friends I did not have.

e. “Don’t buy drinks when you go out.” All that alcohol I was not buying at those places that I could not afford to eat at.

f. “Buy used clothing or trade clothes with your friends.” Double zinger there; no friends and no budget for clothes.

And so on.  I can only guess that these columns were written for people with some money and not for people with no money.  More likely, they were written for people who had ‘extra’ money from parents and did not know how to separate a ‘want’ from a ‘necessity’.  When you are poor it is all ‘necessities’ like rent, food, and utilities.

5) My wife and I both grew up poor.  These days, long after the poor years of our childhoods our only desire on a daily basis is to be ‘generous’ when we can for our friends – paying for meals for the teens that come to our house or paying for the parking when we go out with them.  Being able to be kind is something that poor people are robbed from being able to do and this limits their ability to express appreciation.  Patricia and I always try to be generous these days.

6) Good health does not have to be out of the possibility for you.  There are a few things that anyone can do which can improve their health or even give them good health:

a) Move your body as much as possible and as often as possible.  Be the opposite of ‘sedentary’.  The gym is a nice idea but, truly, you can create your own ‘gym’ by always finding ways to move more and move further: walk as often as you can to places nearby and try to do the walking at a quicker pace.

b) No soda of any kind, including seltzers.  The problem may be in the carbonation but without a doubt there are problems in the calories, sugar and phosphorus.

c) Fast food and processed foods are just the worst for wasted calories and fat.

d) Stress.  if your life has too much sadness and stress for you to handle then you must do what you can to decrease those issues.  I am sorry if this means getting rid of toxic relationships (family, friends, children, and spouses), leaving your job no matter how well it pays or if it is your only means of support, moving, and getting therapy to get past traumas.  No one should live in a prison of their life.

e) Seek joy and joyful things.  In my life I have kids who mostly make me happy, a wife who mostly makes me happy, a dog who always makes me happy, a job I love (I own the medical office I practice in with good employees who I pay well), good health (I am a chiropractor who practice what he talks about), and a new car (which I love and was always my ‘dream car’).  Please do not wait for a future that may never come – find ways to enhance your joy now!

f) Find a skill that you want to get better at – it will keep your brain young and slow or stop dementia.  For me it is learning Spanish.  I would also like to learn and instrument.  Right now I just surround myself with Spanish speakers and listen to Spotify.

g) Be kind to yourself and others.  I cannot tell you if being kind to others is good for them or good for you but let us suppose that the benefits are in equal measure.  A life lived with anger, hostility, resentment, anxiety, fear, or lack of purpose is not a life worth living; it is being alive but not living a life.  Gratitude can be both a purpose and a goal to reach daily.