The Millennials: waste not want not

Let's begin at the beginning, shall we?

In the beginning, we were hunter-gatherers. Life was simple. Then we discovered fire and decided food tasted better cooked. So cook became a new occupation. Then we decided it would be nice to eat out once in a while, so we invented restaurants. But restaurants cost money so we had to invent currency. Which can't be left lying around so banker became a new occupation.

So it went for thousands of years. Each problem solved spawned a new occupation and a bunch of unintended consequences. Of course, unintended consequence is another word for problem. And remember, each problem solved spawns a new occupation.

Then somewhere along the way, we decided that success required perpetual growth in consumption. So we invented deceptive advertising, planned obselescence, and the disposable society. We commercialized all the holidays, and normalized exotic travel. People conformed very well, going deep in debt so they could buy at least one of everything. The only area where people fell down is producing more consumers. But that was okay, we made up the shortfall by importing consumers from other countries.

And boy, did we ever consume. We got big single-family houses, on big, personal plots of land. We bought religiously on the big religious holidays. We took big international trips. We lived a long way from work, but that was okay -- each family member had at least one vehicle...and a personal computer...and a personal phone. And instead of sending our kids out to play, we bought experiences for them. We had a lot of debt, but that was okay. Our secure jobs would slowly but surely pay it off. We'd retire by fifty-five and live off our pension plans.

Then something bad happened. The economy had a series of nervous breakdowns. Our retirement nesteggs broke. Our companies outsourced labor to third-world countries. Trade barriers were struck down and cheaper foreign goods flooded the market. We got laid off from our job-for-life. We found new jobs, but then we got laid off again, and again. So instead of retiring on time, we decided to keep working. We blamed it all on our leaders. What kind of future were we leaving our children? We demanded a plan. Our leaders didn't have one.

But our kids did. They looked at our self-imposed burdens and shook their heads. Why, they asked, should they even try to emulate our parents' wasteful lifestyle? A big house in the burbs? Puh. We'll take an apartment near work, thank you very much. If it's not within walking distance, we'll ride-share or bike. Job for life? Sounds hideous. Retire at fifty-five? We'd be too old to enjoy it. Thirty-five sounds more like it. Unions? Benefits? Nah. Good riddance. In fact, good riddance to wage slavery altogether. We'll start our own companies and get a direct piece of the action. But we won't run it for growth alone. We'll run it according to our own sensibilities -- sustainability, waste reduction, ethical production, work-life balance, buy local.

So here we are in 2018, stalemated, trying to find a way forward or a way out. And while our righty vs. lefty political debates rage on, the millennials quietly figured it out and chose their own path.

Here's to the millenials, who grew up in disruption and themselves became a whole generation of disruptors.