A Work Ethic...and Other Traps

It has opined that my generation, Generation X, is the last one with a “work ethic." We are the youngest to believe in the “American Dream,” that if you work hard, be a diligent and productive person, that you will be rewarded with a decent career, security for yourself and your family, and the means to acquire a house, newer car, and everything we’re supposed to desire. The idea of this thing, the “American Dream,” is that if you work hard and believe the “System” will work for you then your life will work out. Our parents, the Boomers, accepted that as a given; even after the war in Southeast Asia and Watergate made a degree of cynicism chic, people my parents’ age still believed in the American Dream. My generation also believed, albiet with some reservations. So, we worked our asses off, visited demo houses in new communities full of daydreams and the smell of offgassing carpet. The younger generations, however, don’t seem to have the same work ethic as people my age and older. You know what? I salute them; they are clearly more savvy than us old fuckers, have understood right out of the gate the “System” is not set up for us working folks. It seems they understand that the pace of our modern world, the need to hustle and acheive and acquire, is toxic. They see through having a newer car and home “ownership” for what it really is, a debt trap, obligations that imprison you in a cycle of just trying to keep your head above water. From a young age, these Millenials and Generation Zs etc. appeared to realize that the “System” has been designed by the wealthy and the connected to make it easy for them to acquire more wealth and protect the resources they already possess. Most likely, you and I will die without achieving the American Dream, the things our parents and grandparents had, the things they took for granted…and that’s okay. Even after living out the van for two years and extracting myself from what I will call the Rat Race I still have my work ethic, but I work hard for myself and not out of any belief it will get me up the corporate ladder or anything like that. I no longer deride the lack of work ethic of the younger generations, I am taking their lesson to heart; they get it, they really do...