Eric Felten wrote an article recently for the Wall Street Journal entitled "Preppy Pitfall: All That Madras, Not Enough Effort." Perhaps you read it. In it, Mr. Felten attempts to place the blame for our current malaise at least partly on the publication in 1980 of Lisa Birnbach's The Official Preppy Handbook. Seriously?
Felten writes that it was not the preppy era's clothes or music that is to blame, but the book's promotion of the attitude of aristo-cratic indiffer-ence that is at the root of our troubles. Is he really claiming that a satirical book that lampooned a minute slice of American society overwrote our famous Protestant work ethic and is bringing down the curtain on our great Republic? Apparently he is. The preppy fad no more brought about this culture of indolence than the disco craze caused us all to become a nation of cocaine addicts. The fad was the clothes, not the attitude. We wore the pink and green for a year or two and then moved on to the next thing, which happened to be punk.
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| This guy wrecked your good time. |
The punk fad grew out of dissatisfaction with societal structure. It started in England, where a bad economy, high unemployment, and limited opportunity gave rise to the anarchistic worldview. The apocalyptic dress and the nihilistic approach were the outward manifestations of the frustration and angst that marked this generation. To these outliers, hard work was not the solution to increasing social stratification. If the Haves who had it were not going to share with those who didn't, what was the point? Atlas Shrugged, anyone? Despite the (musical) chord it struck with a disaffected generation, punk was a fad, as was the follow-up act, grunge. Just as most of the hippie generation eventually got with the program and became mainstream contributors to society, so to will most of the punks, skinheads, and grungers. Youthful defiance almost always gives way to adult acceptance.
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| Nathaniel Elliot Worthington, III, circa 1990. |
Nope, it was easy credit and coddling parents that wrecked our economy, not Lisa Birnbach. Every generation of parents strives to provide for their children a better life than they themselves had. Post-war America was powered by an economy that was the envy of the world. The Baby Boom generation was born during a period of prosperity that has never been equaled and they have enjoyed the highest standard of living ever experienced by the human race. How then could this generation provide their children with an even better lifestyle? Well, if hard work and opportunity made possible the world's best standard of living, only NOT working and enjoying that same standard could be better.
The wealth amassed in post-war America was staggering. My generation was the beneficiary of all this wealth creation. Because our parents wanted us to have more than they did, we grew up feeling entitled–entitled to a good grades, entitled to a car at sixteen, entitled to dining out weekly and vacations yearly, entitled to the newest pair of Air Jordans. We wanted it all and we didn't want to have to work for it or wait for it. So, as adults we leveraged up and used other people's money to finance the lifestyles that we felt entitled to. Our grandparents–the Depression Generation–looked on in dumbfounded amazement. Our profligate consumption was anathema to the generation that grew up learning to reuse everything. I swear that I once watched my friend's grandmother recycle the ice cubes left in the ice bucket after a cocktail party.
The spending that was emblematic of this entitlement was dependent upon both an ever-expanding economy and continued access to credit. Leverage–or credit–made the economy go. It powered the lavish lifestyles that were backed by insufficient balance sheets and not enough earnings power. An expanding economy begat easy credit which begat an expanding economy. It was a symbiotic relationship. Until it wasn't.
Many pundits have compared our current situation to that experienced by Japan in the 1980s. It is an ominous portent. Japan has struggled for twenty-plus years to right its economy. Guess what? In the 1980s, the generation that rebuilt post-war Japan complained loudly that Japan's youth was turning away from the salaryman doctrine that typified Japanese corporate-worker loyalty and instead was embracing the indolent tendencies of the west's youth. Did Birnbach's book also sink the Japanese economy? If so, Nathaniel Elliot Worthington, III is public enemy number one. If Mr. Felton was being tongue-in-cheek, I whiffed on his attempt at humor.
"And she stepped on the ball!"
The wealth amassed in post-war America was staggering. My generation was the beneficiary of all this wealth creation. Because our parents wanted us to have more than they did, we grew up feeling entitled–entitled to a good grades, entitled to a car at sixteen, entitled to dining out weekly and vacations yearly, entitled to the newest pair of Air Jordans. We wanted it all and we didn't want to have to work for it or wait for it. So, as adults we leveraged up and used other people's money to finance the lifestyles that we felt entitled to. Our grandparents–the Depression Generation–looked on in dumbfounded amazement. Our profligate consumption was anathema to the generation that grew up learning to reuse everything. I swear that I once watched my friend's grandmother recycle the ice cubes left in the ice bucket after a cocktail party.
The spending that was emblematic of this entitlement was dependent upon both an ever-expanding economy and continued access to credit. Leverage–or credit–made the economy go. It powered the lavish lifestyles that were backed by insufficient balance sheets and not enough earnings power. An expanding economy begat easy credit which begat an expanding economy. It was a symbiotic relationship. Until it wasn't.
Many pundits have compared our current situation to that experienced by Japan in the 1980s. It is an ominous portent. Japan has struggled for twenty-plus years to right its economy. Guess what? In the 1980s, the generation that rebuilt post-war Japan complained loudly that Japan's youth was turning away from the salaryman doctrine that typified Japanese corporate-worker loyalty and instead was embracing the indolent tendencies of the west's youth. Did Birnbach's book also sink the Japanese economy? If so, Nathaniel Elliot Worthington, III is public enemy number one. If Mr. Felton was being tongue-in-cheek, I whiffed on his attempt at humor.
"And she stepped on the ball!"
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