IT’S THE END OF A WORLD AND WE KNOW IT
By Robert Sprackland, Ph.D.

One of the conspicuous hallmarks of societies throughout history is that each generation of people has worked to ensure that their children’s generation will have it better than the parents. Rome went from a rural farm society to one of the world’s most powerful and prosperous empires; Spain went from a poor occupied country into one of the major colonial powers; England went from a small island country to the ruler of the largest empire in history; and the United States went from thirteen colonies that could barely stand each other to the sole superpower of the late 20th century. In each case we can follow the societal progress with increasing wealth of the citizens such that personal success marched hand-in-hand with national success.

Of course nothing peaks forever, and we know what happened to each of the once supreme societies over time. Rome was sacked by the “barbarians”; Spain overreached and went bust after about 300 years; the sun now sets on the British flag; and what of the United States? Has it peaked? Is its time as the sole superpower finally begun its decline?
If we measure success based on the perks one generation has over another, the answer must be yes.

I was born in 1954, which means I am one of the huge number of people who have ridden the rear of the baby-boomer wave. From that perspective I have witnessed America change its values and its power drastically, and very little of it in positive ways. Against the howls of protests let me offer this history:

In October 1962 my family bought its first house. That three-bedroom ranch with basement (no garage) cost $13,500, at a time when my father earned about $7,000 a year. Gasoline for our one car cost about 22-cents per gallon, was pumped by uniformed station employees who also checked under the hood, tire pressure, and washed the windows. You could mail a letter for 5-cents. Schooling was taken very seriously, and very few students could pass the third grade without knowing all 50 states, their capitols, and location on the map. A letter home from the teacher was a solemn and important incident. Parents actually raised their own children, getting some help from family members, and were held accountable for public misbehavior of the kids. People knew their neighbors and neighborhoods, and it was safe to let the children play outside for hours with little or no supervision. If you took an airplane trip you could board without screening, were not charged extra for luggage, and were served actual meals that tasted good. Universities were fairly easy to enter, fees were affordable, and the prospect of landing a good job with a bachelor’s degree were excellent. If you earned a Ph.D. you could expect to get a job working in the discipline that you studied.

That is the world that many of my age group expected would be there for us when we were adults, and while many did achieve financial success the world we expected had long since ended. Here is the situation we face today:

In October 2002 I bought my first house. That three-bedroom two-story house without basement (but a two-car garage) cost $213,500, at a time when I earned about $66,000 a year (the cost of my parent’s house is what I paid for a car in 2002, and the down payment on my house was $7,000 more than the cost of their home). Gasoline for our two cars now costs about $4.40 per gallon, is pumped by me, and the station employees are generally clueless about how to check under the hood, tire pressure, and wash the windows (even if they would do those tasks). You can mail a letter for 42-cents. Schooling is taken less seriously than video gaming, and very few students know that there are 50 states, or can find the location of any country but their own on the map. A letter home from the teacher is a rare incident, carrying no more weight than a piece of junk mail. Parents hire au pairs and daycare to raise their children, getting little or no help from family members (who may live half a continent away), and are virtually never held accountable for public misbehavior of the kids (“Hey, Mr. Jones, you fix this wall your kid just spoiled with graffiti!”). People know little of their neighbors, and neighborhoods are considered unsafe for letting the children play outside without supervision. If you took an airplane trip you must be screening, are charged extra for luggage, and are served meals that defy digestion, lack flavor, and are not always included in the ticket price. Universities are difficult to enter, fees look like budgets for small nations, and the prospect of landing a good job with a bachelor’s degree is dismal. If you earn a Ph.D. you cannot reasonably expect to get a job working in the discipline that you studied; indeed, it seems the initials now stand for “Pizza Hut Delivery.”

It is true that we have many wonders that our parents could not imagine back in the 1950s or 1960s, such as personal computers, the Internet, a space station, cell phones… But look at what it takes for those perks. It takes both adults in a marriage full-time jobs to make financial ends meet, and many of us live paycheck-to-paycheck. The workplace has sold out its responsibility to the employee (do your job well and you have guaranteed employment) yet insists upon far more employee time and dedication than before. Forty-hour workweeks have swelled into 50- and 60-hours norms, and a smaller percentage of Americans take vacation time each year. We have replaced measles, mumps, and chicken pox with ADD, autism, and asthma as major childhood illnesses. When the government boasts about new jobs it helped create, it doesn’t mention that most of those openings are in the part-time fast-food sector from which no one can make a living. It doesn’t count people whose unemployment benefits have run out as part of the unemployed.

I am not saying that episodes of “Leave It To Beaver” present an accurate portrayal of the world of our childhood; rather, that we have peaked past a world in which work and home life were more balanced, where education was widely valued, and where people took personal responsibility for more of their own lives. The population of the country in 1954 was 163,000,000, and today it is 303,000,000 and growing. Resources and contemporary work and civil ethics mitigate to prevent a return to the kind of affluent society we saw in the 1950s and 1960s, which doesn’t mean we cannot achieve a new and equally fulfilling situation again. But if we do, it will be very different.

If we do not, then the United States truly has peaked, and its days of world pre-eminence will decline, like Egypt, Rome, Spain, France, and Britain before her. It’s the end of a world as many of us knew it; let us hope that which follows is bright, humane, and better than what previous generations enjoyed.

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You know you are a baby-boomer if you—

*Remember when “swipe” meant “steal”
*Know what “LSMFT” means
*You discussed “cells” when teaching the kids about prison
*Recall when you first asked “Seatbelts? What are seatbelts?”
*Bought comic books for 12-cents
*Can’t remember a single 1960s TV show that even came close to reality-based
*Were in your 40s when you got your first entry-level job in your chosen career
*Can recall what you were doing when Kennedy was shot
*Had to think about the meaning of the film “The Day the Earth Stood Still”
*Know that Mr. Clean was based on Yul Bryner and Dwight Eisenhower
*Remember who made “the very best chocolate”
*Know that Red Skelton is not a bone disease
*Respond to the phrase “sixty-nine Mets”
*Can name at least 30 movies about World War II
*Got up early to hear the national anthem on TV
*Thought “cable” had something to do with Western Union.
*Can name five of the Little Rascals
*Hear the term U-2 and think of Garry Powers
*Are disappointed that they don’t show a cartoon before the main movie
*Are nostalgic for Bosco or Coco-Marsh
*Once wanted to be a beatnik