does anyone get the feeling...

[nostatic]

that the salad days are over...we are in the declining years of society (mostly focused on the US). All this talk of the "greatest generation" reminds me that the next generation (or current one depending on your cutoff) will *not* have it better than their parents. Advances in medicine and technology will be overrun by spiraling costs and strangling regulation. Our crude attempt to control disease will only result in superbugs that take us back to a time before penicillin. Cities overcrowded (36 Million in CA now), immigration, legal and otherwise rampant, staggering debt, crumbling infrastructure, and the only people willing to run for public office are idiots and egomaniacs.

On a positive note, I bought a helmet today!

[speeder]

Absolutely, but up until 4 years ago I had hope.

Good to hear about the helmet!

[dd74]

"Whoa, oh mercy mercy me..."

M. Gaye

That pretty much says it all...

Yo Stat, there are hills and valleys. Things will level out.

[lendaddy]

I almost posted an identical thread last night...hmm I had my TinFoil hat on, how did you do that

To me it is the change in mentality of people my age(30) and younger. No one wants to work for anything anymore. I mean my father and many of his friends built small fortunes at mediocre jobs through common sense and hard work. I just don't see that happeneing now. Alot of my buddies live with their parents and still have no savings, though some have nice cars I don't know but I hope Mark is right and it's a cyclical thing.

[cowtown]

Good topic, nostatic. I do think this is the case, but every time I think it, a little voice says that every new generation thinks this is it. The jig is up.

If you've ever seen "American Beauty," where Chris Cooper is looking over his newspaper and says "The world's going to hell...", that's kind of how I feel about CA at best, and the USA at worst.

I hope I'm wrong, and that I'm just Chris Cooper. But it just seems that we have unprecedented challenges that we are not rising to. Immigration, education, terrorism, religious crazies, political polarization on a scale that I've never seen before.

Even the Roman Empire only lasted a couple hundred years. Every successful civilization has historically had its downfall.

[pwd72s]

One advantage to being a 6 decades old guy....I figure, at most, I have 20 to go...the nation should be able to hang in there that long, right? "where am I going? why am I in a handbasket?"

[Beethoven]

Same feeling here. I immigrated to this country 18 years ago. I grew to love it, and there was a time in the late 90's when I was thrilled to be part of it all. Now it looks as though we're falling back into some kind of medieval times, with rich elites, holy wars, terror, and hopelessness.
Mind you, I just spent a year in Germany, and it ain't any prettier there...

[dd74]

What the heck is a "handbasket?"

Is that someplace you put hands?

[350HP930]

SOYLENT GREEN IS MADE OF PEOPLE ! ! ! . . . .

But seriously, I was expecting something along the lines of 9/11 during the millenium crazyness. I guess since the clinton administration was doing a better job of defending the country than bush's things were just delayed a bit.

Welcome to the waning days of the empire. In another 50 years we will probably be another england if not a depressing and statist corporate police state.

[nostatic]

Originally posted by cowtown
If you've ever seen "American Beauty," where Chris Cooper is looking over his newspaper and says "The world's going to hell...", that's kind of how I feel about CA at best, and the USA at worst.

Having been born in CA in '61, I can say that I probably saw some of the best years of the state when I was young...more's the pity that I didn't realize it at the time,...although Vietnam was in full swing, my dad had ulcers and I remember that some days in the summer it hurt to breath deep (air pollution).

Another quote which gives some hope (albeit in death) from American Beauty (amazing film):

"I guess I could be really pissed off about what happened to me, but it's hard to stay mad, when there's so much beauty in the world. Sometimes I feel like I'm seeing it all at once, and it's too much, my heart fills up like a balloon that's about to burst. And then I remember to relax, and stop trying to hold on to it, and then it flows through me like rain. And I can't feel anything but gratitude for every single moment of my stupid little life. You have no idea what I'm talking about, I'm sure. Don't worry ... you will someday."

[dd74]

Quoting life from movies? Now that's depressing in itself.

[JavaBrewer]

Originally posted by Mark Wilson
Yo Stat, there are hills and valleys. Things will level out.

Yep what Mark said. Every generation has faced similar obstacles - why exactly is this one going to fail?

Originally posted by 350HP930
I guess since the clinton administration was doing a better job of defending the country than bush's things were just delayed a bit.

Originally posted by speeder
Absolutely, but up until 4 years ago I had hope

So I hope you both are doing more than just sitting all day bi***ing on a BBS. If GW is re-elected we'll know who exactly to blame. For peets sake, Clinton defending the country????

[campbellcj]

Same here. It is hard for my wife and I to fend off depression sometimes. We were born and raised in LA and have never really wanted to live anywhere else. But the overall condition of the city, state and country are quite disgusting -- in particular the way our entire "system" is controlled by career politicians who seem to do nothing but fight off their latest scandals with media spin-doctors, and run us further and further into the dark hole of perpetual red-ink by overspending vs. revenues.

Not to mention that we are supposedly in the top <1% of "earners" and yet to sustain a "good" lifestyle here in SoCal still requires busting ass and sacrifice to make ends meet and ensure that basic housing, healthcare, food, clothing and education needs are met without interupption.

It's really bull$**** that a technologically advanced nation such as ours has SO many people struggling to maintain quality of life or even basic survival. And no I am not talking about entitlements or illegal immigrants -- I refer more to anyone (in SoCal at least) who actually "works" for a living!

[JavaBrewer]

Hell just travel back East and you'll see how good we have it in CA. For me the bottom line is I can still BBQ my tri-tip in January in my backyard wearing shorts. I'll pay the taxes and get bent over at the gas pump, no problem. My lifestyle involves the outdoors and CA delivers in spades.

I sit here in my $400K house with $45K of cars sitting outside while watching my 53" TV listening through my Dolby surround sound system. I look over at my $3500 Litespeed and think how good it will be to ride it again after this ankle heals from the free operation I got last week. I get up to limp over to my home office to get on the $2K laptop hooked up to the 19" flat screen and I nearly catch my crutches on the cords to the Xbox. What was that ding? Oh that's the buzzer from the Neptune dryer.....

Life just sucks. Damn you George Bush......Damn you all to hell..........

[GrindingGears]

Originally posted by dmoolenaar
Hell just travel back East and you'll see how good we have it in CA. For me the bottom line is I can still BBQ my tri-tip in January in my backyard wearing shorts. I'll pay the taxes and get bent over at the gas pump, no problem. My lifestyle involves the outdoors and CA delivers in spades.

hell yeah!

surf sun snow silicon

[fintstone]

I don't know..I have been turning down jobs in CA. The salaries are about the same as here but it costs several times as much to live the same lifestyle (house, car, food, etc). By my computations, I can live about the same here unemployed than making an $85-$90K salary in LA.

[dd74]

Yeah, but your Targa won't be gasping for breath down here at sea level...

[nostatic]

Originally posted by dmoolenaar
Yep what Mark said. Every generation has faced similar obstacles - why exactly is this one going to fail?

because the world is a fundamentally different place than at any time in history. The digital revolution and globalization have changed the dynamic forever. Technology advances far outstrip cultural and societal abilities to keep up. The question is can humans keep up, and keep all the balls up in the air.