I’ve read several articles in the last 3 or 4 years written by the youngest adults around — the early 20s folks who are facing quite a different world than the one we emerged into after university, fresh-faced with hope and the sensation that we could be anything that we wanted to if we applied ourselves diligently. And of course we all simply knew without questioning that we would own our own homes quite quickly. That world frequently doesn’t exist for today’s emerging adults — and there is a growing resentment about that accompanied by quite a bit of finger pointing.

The global epidemic of financial and personal pessimism isn’t limited to the young though. Even amongst people who are middle-aged or older, I personally know of quite a few adults who have been wiped out financially by the last recession and who have lost their homes and jobs. I also have both friends and family members who are retired folks that conscientiously set aside money during their years of employment for month after month, year after year, only to retire and discover that the longed-for pension was now worth 50% or less of what they had put in. They might as well have set those US dollars or British pounds alight in a bonfire. Or even better, they might have had rather a lot of holidays that they postponed in the belief that they would do all of that once they were ‘safely’ retired with lots of time on their hands.

What concerns me about articles like What On Earth Is To Become Of The Next Generation is that the young writer, viewing the daunting and diminished prospects that his generation faces with clarity and a fortunately-moderated anger, still engages in stereotypes that simply do NOT apply to all of us who are over 45.

I will cite examples from my own life, but I know many similar stories from friends aged 40s through 70s. When our children were growing up, we baked our own bread, canned or bottled our fruits and veg (whether we grew them ourselves or bought them at the market stalls), we travelled frugally and drove economical vehicles. And I recycled cans and bottles back in the early 1970s when my children were small and they teased me about it. Those same children are now marvelously responsible and sensible adults in their 30s who live the SAME way. Many more of us than you could imagine continue to live lightly on the Earth in an attempt to reduce the burden of our actions on those that follow us. And no, we are not the Porsche-driving, yacht-navigating, trust-fund-wearing, 2nd-and-3rd home-owning spenders that we are all portrayed as in most articles about the Boomer Generation.

There is a tiny proportion of wealthy adults who fit the stereotypes that are discussed in the article that I link to above and those people are frequently the movers-and-shakers who got the WORLD into this economic, social, and environmental mess through their rampant greed, disregard for planetary assets, and desire to pad their own bank accounts.

Here’s a suggestion for the disillusioned youth. Why not join forces with us shocked and hard-working-yet-financially-diminished older folks and see what kind of Revolution For Good that we can create if we work together and cease any sniping at one another.

If we sincerely had some resolve and courage, what government in the world is going to survive if huge waves of angry people rise up and say aloud, “Enough is ENOUGH!” Angry taxpayers, angry and unemployed young folks, people who have lost their jobs and their homes, pensioners who can barely survive, war-veterans who were promised care after they did their patriotic duty — angry, angry, angry people are sick of feeling put upon, lied to, and taken advantage of. It doesn’t take my psychic senses to tell me that there is a rippling current that is about to explode into a shower of sparks and we need to find ways now, not down the road in a few months or years, to work together to find ways to take care of one another no matter what our age or circumstances.

The young writer of the linked article is correct. Many of his generation will never own a home or be adequately employed and of course they have the right to be agitated about those limitations on their lives. But take the time to listen to the older folks who feel distinctly ‘sold out’ by the governments of various countries and the global financial markets. And perhaps join together, work together, walk arm-in-arm in the streets in protest TOGETHER!

This may be an essay worth expanding at a future date with more ideas about living sustainably in a world that has shrinking resources — so I will be curious to see what, if any, feedback I receive. I always welcome commentary from friends — but I would also like to hear from others who usually read my columns and then quietly move on without commenting. What do YOU think about possible solutions to this global epidemic of pessimism about the future?