Millennials under fire
The shallow reportage concerning generational wealth disparity is beginning to irritate (11 March). Without at least some analysis of systemic causes for the movement of capital and the true redistribution of wealth, we risk laying the blame for this inequity at the door of so-called badly skewed demographics and the previous generation of Boomers.
Are we really being asked to swallow the argument that the young will be poor at the expense of supporting the unexpected longevity of the old? Is it now a topic of resentment that some of our older generation have sufficient means after a lifetime of work, taxes and saving to carry them through retirement?
The false conclusions of The betrayal of Generation Y lack any reference to the changes in the workplace that have imposed lower pay and poorer conditions on Generation Y. Not a mention of the blackmail of austerity, the growth of casual unsecured work, the erosion of conditions and the constant attack on workers’ rights that have been hard-won by previous generations. The current push by industry in Australia to abolish penalty rates – ie differentiation in remuneration for working unsocial hours and weekends – is an example of the attacks the young face in the workplace.
In the globalised capitalist economic system, the young have lost the battle by ignoring the fight. They have failed to recognise the power dynamics of a capitalist economy and have failed to seize the world as their inheritance. Where is the action for reform and the demand for affordable public housing, which are exactly the same problems faced by previous generations?
It’s not too late, Generation Y: get off Facebook, get out of the gym and on to the streets in protest. A little civil disobedience is one of the most effective vectors in bringing about social progress for the common good. It’s now your turn.
Paul Guthrie
Cairns, Queensland, Australia
• Your betrayal of Generation Y coverage feeds the new conventional wisdom that we are facing an intensifying war of the generations, present and future. All very convenient for global capital, particularly in the developed world, as it struggles to ensure that its costs are minimised and profits maximised in the context of the ongoing transformation of the capitalist world-system.
As always, divide and rule remains a key weapon for the powers that be. It is therefore frustrating to see the Guardian feeding such a useful new divide for global capital. Your analysis arguably needs review to clarify what is really going on.
Stewart Sweeney
Adelaide, South Australia
• Your cover story on millennials who are facing a bleak future clouded by debt does not mention that earlier generations, before the credit card became a worldwide fixture in the 1990s, were apparently able to afford necessities without borrowing money as easily as Generation Y has. How can one explain the jaw-dropping college debt of $300,000 currently owed by a 26-year-old unmarried student I know of currently working for a doctorate in the US?
Her retired grandparents might argue that easy borrowing via credit cards is in part to blame, or at least have their hunch confirmed by the following quote from the chapter on the origin of plastic charge cards in A history of the world in 100 objects by Neil MacGregor: “Easy credit [via microtechnology] undermines traditional values like thrift, because it sets you free from having to save before you spend.”
Richard Orlando
Westmount, Quebec, Canada
• Your front-page article on the disaffection of under-30s is not limited to the world in which most Guardian Weekly readers live. Young people in the Middle East and Africa, often members of large families, grow up with no money, no job, and very little education. What are they to look for?
Frustration leads too often to violence, and guns and other weapons seem to be easy to find and even handed out to them. We cannot be surprised that young people make full use of them. Joining a group or party they find like minded comrades, and a badge, for instance Boko Haram or Isis, offers an emotive sense of purpose and of destiny.
We in the developed world need to work seriously in tackling the basic causes of their hardship.
Robin Minney
Durham, UK
The art of conversation
Simon Jenkins (18 March) poses the question, “Are schools on the wrong track in focusing so much attention on elements of maths that people will likely not ever use in their daily life”? Jenkins does not touch on a skill that is vital to life every day: the ability to be a competent conversationalist. For conversing is the foundation on which relationships are built and sustained, stories are told, passions and ideas are shared, trust is established and sense of adventure emerges. It is the generator of new ways of being and new ways of doing, the dynamic of the future of any system, small or large.
I wonder to what extent is there a recognition of the value of teaching conversing skills in school curriculums? Being reminded that face-to-face conversation is the most enlivening way of connecting with others. And a change from communicating with a little screen in front of their face and a little plug in their ear - and no multitasking going on.
For in today’s highly competitive, alienated, fragmented and distracted social environment, it is crucial to understand that the success of humankind within the evolutionary history of our planet depends on our capacity for cooperation and communication. If solutions are possible, they are always found through conversing.
Alan Stewart
Adelaide, South Australia
Obama is not the problem
I love reading the Guardian for its insight and ability to print a variety of perspectives, but I can’t see how Matt Laslo’s article was supported to provide anything to the discussion of American politics (4 March). To blame Barack Obama for the rise of Donald Trump is simply ridiculous. It completely neglects the current Republicans in its analysis. To forget that the Republican Congress has passed more than 60 efforts at repealing the Affordable Care Act, while failing to even propose a cursory plan for replacement, is lax at best. To suggest that “Maybe he could have consulted Congress more” is idiocy when former House leader John Boehner couldn’t get his own party to agree on anything.
The Republicans call Obama a weak leader when he fails to get bipartisan support, while refusing to work with him under any conditions. If Obama does try to accomplish anything by executive order, they call him a tyrant.
Democrats have at least tried to enact laws that address some of the concerns listed by Laslo, but they have been stonewalled by the do‑nothing Republicans.
The Democrats are far from perfect, but there is no parity between Democrats and Republicans in the fomenting of cynicism.
Dave Scott
Toronto, Canada
Finishing England
The article about the upcoming showcase of the works of Capability Brown (4 March) included comment about his commission from 1780 for Belvoir Castle having been rediscovered; his plans are now being carried out, with trees being felled and overgrown or abandoned areas being restored to ponds and lakes.
While one’s aesthetic sense appreciates such efforts, have we not been reading articles in the Guardian decrying loss of natural habitat, which has been purported to be responsible for the declining numbers of native British fauna and flora, particularly butterflies and birds? It puts a different interpretation on his quoted retort: “I haven’t finished England yet”.
Anthony Walter
Surrey, British Columbia, Canada
Briefly
• In your bleak projection of an automated marketplace (4 March), you make only one mistake – it is not “our greed as customers” that is driving the changes – and miss one dire prospect. It is corporate greed that is pursuing a business-without-employees model. But who will the merchants sell their products to when they have replaced the last worker with a computer?
Keith Stotyn
Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
• In complaining about Jeremy Corbyn sharing a platform with many of Labour’s political opponents (4 March), the former shadow culture secretary Michael Dugher overlooks the fact that what we, the voters, look for in leaders is the statesmanship to find and cultivate common ground. Strongest decisions are made by consensus reached by the most diverse input.
Adrian Betham
London, UK
• May I give a shout to the inventor of the surgery checklists mentioned in In praise of ... to-do lists (4 March)? They were developed by Dr Peter Pronovost, practising anaesthetist and professor of anaesthesiology at Johns Hopkins University, among other responsible positions.
The New Yorker reports that in one year his work saved the lives of 1,500 patients and $100m in the state of Michigan alone, a rate that has been maintained. His book – Safe Patients, Smart Hospitals – would benefit any health plan.
Of course, the checklist cannot do its work unless faithfully followed. Check.
Elizabeth Quance
Westmount, Quebec, Canada
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