Hiding | Bandelier National Monument, New Mexico | Feb 2009

A bit of frivolity…

David Scharfenberg of the Boston Globe, So maybe the slackers had it right after all:

… in retrospect, it’s clear that [slackers] did something right. We lived a smaller life, a life we could afford. And as the country rebuilds the economy, as it tries to replace it with something more sustainable than a leaning tower of subprime mortgages and consumer binging, it is time to reevaluate that much-maligned Gen X archetype: the American Slacker.

“Slacker,” like most labels, has always been a crude and misleading shorthand. We were a bit aimless, us urban, liberal-arts types. We were a little too enamored of irony, perhaps. A little too frivolous.

… Those of us who took low-wage jobs were not just marking time. Not all of us, anyway. We were doing work we cared about, as journalists and teachers and social workers.

All that job-hopping and freelancing? We were dilettantes, on some level, it’s true. But we also understood, before most, that something had shifted – that we were moving to an economy of telecommuters and independent contractors and less-than-loyal employers.

And while the best minds on Wall Street cooked up the real estate mess that destroyed a global economy, we were sensible enough to steer clear of that overpriced condo and move into a dingy, three-bedroom rental with a few of our meathead friends.

You see, while Alan Greenspan and Countrywide Financial were creating a capitalism of disastrous excess, we were busy working on a more workable model. …

We brought you the Internet, worked on green technology, and filled the ranks of Teach for America. We crossed the color line, ate local produce, and bought secondhand clothing. We lived in smaller spaces, drove smaller cars, and took the subway to work.

It all seemed like a quaint liberal fantasy at the time. And on some level it was. But now, with a creaking economy and an overheated planet, it reads more like a survival manual: a guide to multicultural living in an increasingly diverse society, an incubator for the technology that might save the American auto industry, an antidote to our awful adventures in sprawl.

Of course, we could abandon this life as we get older, I suppose. We could grow impatient with our little apartments and cramped hatchbacks. We could set our sights on the kind of suburban existence we’ve forsaken. But I’d like to think we’re smarter than that.

We created something worthwhile – a sustainable neighborhood, a tech future, a life we can manage. And we won’t let it go too easily.

At least I hope not. As the nation rebuilds a crumbling capitalism, it could use a little perspective, a little wisdom. Bet you didn’t think you’d get it from us.

And…

Via Ethan Bauley, Bob Jeffrey, Millennials’ New Mantra: Have Less, Imagine More:

The Millennials, who were supposed to be the harbingers of a global interwebbed knowledge-based prosperity, are now inheritors of one of the greatest collapses of collective judgment this century has seen. Are they in denial, in disappointment or simply in disbelief?

Some recent research we’ve conducted at JWT, part of our AnxietyIndex.com, provides a window into some answers. We found that more than 60 percent of today’s youth believe their generation is receiving an unfair blow due to this recession.

This makes sense. Raised in a time of inflated prosperity, full of golden promises and expectations, Millenials were marred in the media as “entitled” and “narcissistic,” the “Me Generation.” Their career prospects appeared virtually limitless, their optimism buoyed by our faulty assumption that China would do America’s saving while the U.S. spent itself rich.

As that myth unravels, in pace with the global balancing of current accounts, America’s youth will shoulder a heavy portion of the fallout, most notably a rapidly shrinking job market with no clear end in sight. While we at JWT have noted that yesterday’s “me” mentality is trending more toward “we”–thanks to Obama and other factors–that doesn’t soften the blow of watching your opportunities shrivel in step with the stock market.

… More than a quarter of Millennials in our study said that if they lose or have trouble finding a job, they’ll start their own business. And more than a third said they have friends who are doing interesting entrepreneurial things to make more money.

While youth of the Great Depression flocked to trusted organizations and institutions, valuing corporate continuity over the thrill of entrepreneurship, the pendulum appears to be swinging in the other direction. As confidence in mega-multinationals declines, youth appear prepared to venture into the uncharted. They’re asking, “If this whole mess is the result of a system broken at its core, why not just reinvent it instead of trying to fix it?”

The time may be ripe for just that. In fact, downturns have been historically friendly to startups, product innovations and disruptive technologies, those that, in hindsight, have proved to be game-changing business models or breakthrough products or services. … Necessity is the mother of invention–or in other words: Have less, imagine more.

Business academia has been preaching the same narrative: Recessions are the best time to bring a product to market and widen the gap between you and the competition. Markets voice their needs better in a downturn, when the competition has thinned and fewer parties are chasing the same demands with duplicative new products or services.

So rather than retreating into a silent shell, youth today are seeking out opportunity and creating things that were harder to imagine in a boom economy.

… So while the twentysomethings of today have every right to be angry and disappointed, they’re not letting resentment get the best of them. Their optimism and self-reliance stand in defiance of the depressing headlines. That spirit should guide all of us who are in the driver’s seat as we brace for the rough ride ahead.