By Jennifer Colbourne (The Cascade) – Email
Print Edition: June 20, 2012
Cannibalism, feline dismemberment, body parts in the mail and in the freezer – there’s been a lot of strange, disturbing things happening lately. Some think it’s a sign of the end times, others the zombie apocalypse. It’s a sign of something alright, but nothing so supernatural.
It’s first world despair.
The word “recession” is on everybody’s lips, as if that word—implying a temporary economic hiccup—can ward off the reality that we are closer to falling into a lasting depression than a miraculous recovery. While Canada is nowhere near the state of Greece, Spain or, for that matter, the U.S. (which according to Reuters has seen 3.5 million foreclosures since 2008), things are still far from rosy. Not to mention the ominous fact that we are all too aware that if Europe and America goes down, we’re going down with them.
According to the Huffington Post, Canada is now seeing 14.3 per cent unemployment for workers under 25. In the article the deputy chief economist of the Bank of Montreal’s explains this percentage. “The last thing you want is a whole generation that has trouble catching up with the labour market and potentially seeing their newly minted skills erode,” he said. “It’s important for the long-term health of the economy to get new people into the labour force with new skills and a different perspective.”
This is basically a fancy way of saying, “our Canadian youth are stuck on their asses with nothing to do, while the top gets old-fogey heavy.” This is because, first, there are a lot of old-fogeys, thanks to the baby boom after World War II, and second, when the economy plummeted in 2008, so did their plans to retire.
The irony, as our heart-crushingly long waitlists are a testament to, is that every young person who couldn’t get a job decided to go back to school. Now, we have a problem with having too many qualified people and too few jobs, which is compounded by the fact these degree-bearing hopefuls are now burdened with student debt and unforgiving interest rates.
Sounds pretty bleak, doesn’t it?
It’s a nasty situation that we students have fallen into, though often the blame for it falls roundly on our heads: we don’t have jobs because we are lazy, unmotivated, self-entitled workers. This is even more discouraging, since the most enthusiastic, go-getters of us know that the “right attitude” won’t even guarantee a part-time job at Tim Hortons these days. There are only so many jobs available and youth are the lowest on the totem pole. Any halfway decent job requires a minimum of two years’ experience in the field, and of course you can’t get experience if your field only hires those with experience.
As for the older generations – they’re not better off. If people aren’t losing their houses, they’re losing their investments. It’s not like older folks don’t want to retire – they’re unhappily forced to stay in the workforce we so eagerly want to break into. Meanwhile, the cost of living is going up, and it doesn’t help that their unemployed children are moving back home. It’s a bad scene all around.
So yes, people are going a bit crazy. Everywhere there are wars and rumours of wars. Riots and protests are on the increase. The whole mood of the West is dark, and no wonder. The future is not bright.
Whether consciously aware or not, people react to the prevailing feeling. We can hope that these weird incidences lately are simply isolated, psychotic events, yet the sheer number of them indicates something larger is at play. The first world is used to things coming easy and a high standard of living. Now we’re depressed, half-crazed and unsure what to do with ourselves.
One can’t help but be reminded of Easter Island: when the economy is down … we start eating each other.
