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OP/ED - I get why my brother hates old people.
I’m aware we shouldn’t despise an individual because they are part of a group. I don’t want to be hated for being a member of the putting-ketchup-on-a-hot-dog group. Nevertheless, many of our elders are deserving of ire from the youngins. I became convinced of this when talking to a senior at my city job.
Mr. Z began our phone call by proclaiming that he was born and raised in our part of Los Angeles. From his prideful tone, I expected him to ask for a prize. He loves his town!
But he lamented that it had gone downhill in the new millennium. Mr. Z described in detail the horrors of our highway medians.
“I wouldn’t recommend that anyone visit us,” Mr. Z said. “You should be embarrassed by the landscaping.” To help, I made a service request with the relevant department; I apologized for the inefficiencies of the city bureaucracy. Instead of hanging up, Mr. Z continued on.
“I bet I could help your office,” he said confidently. “Want me to be your consultant? I’m retired, got plenty of time.” I asked him what he’d like to do. Mr. Z said he liked mediating political discussions. He worked at my own office when I was in puberty. Before that he worked at Hughes Aircraft. I told him my grandma also worked at Hughes. They didn’t know each other because he worked in administration, and she soldered electrical components.
“I was there for thirty years,” said Mr. Z fondly. “I got my pension and I want to help our town. It has to look better. The roads were never this bad when I was growing up.”
Mr. Z was ready to negotiate with the Public Works Department to get our area more funding.
“And if that fails, I’d be willing to donate some money for better plants in our medians.”
“Wow,” I remarked. “That’s very generous of you.”
Now at this point, you might say, “He sounds like a sweet old man. Why would you or your brother hate on Mr. Z?”
Here it comes.
“I can afford pitching in a couple o’hundred bucks,” Mr. Z assured me. “I make $5,000 per month on my pension, and I only spend about two grand.”
“That’s good,” I said, fixated on that thought. He makes more than twice what I do at a full-time job! Perhaps he was feeling lonely. Or perhaps he liked our rapport. Whatever it was, Mr. Z wanted to share his wisdom.
“Want to know a secret on how to save money?”
“Sure.”
“Get a credit card with cash back rewards. I use mine for everything: gas, food, travel. But remember to pay it off every month. I do that and I get cash back into my account.”
“That sounds too good to be true,” I said, hiding my frustration. Mr. Z didn’t know that I owed $4,500 on my own credit card.
“This trick really works. And it's because there are so many people in debt that pay interest every month.”
Like me, I thought.
“I benefit because people buy things they can’t afford. “I wanted to tell Mr. Z to shove his rewards somewhere unpleasant. Instead, I managed, “I see” through gritted teeth.
“You sound young Eramis, did you recently get out of college?” I curtly told him I’d been out of college for more than a decade. “Is that right? Well, I’ve got a grandson who just graduated. I’m trying to help him a little with student loans. He’s a good kid.”
“I’m sure he is.” Rather than ask why his grandson has student loans while Mr. Z has so much disposable income, I thanked him for the call and tried to finish up. He decided to get politically cryptic as a farewell.
“You young people have it harder than me when I was your age. This country is on the wrong track. We’ve got inflation. Russia. China. Big change is coming next year…” I believe he was referring to the 2024 presidential election. I could be mistaken.
Mr. Z is far more mistaken than I’ll ever be. Young people do have it harder than he did. But not because a conservative doesn’t sit in the White House today. We can use Putin or Xi Jinping as scapegoats, but neither one is causing the declining quality of life in the U.S. My geriatric caller correctly identified inflation as a problem for younger generations. He failed to mention that this inflation is mostly due to capitalist corporations raising prices just because they can. In both 2021 and 2022, the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis concluded that corporations had rising profits. They do fine, while we get gouged with high prices. That’s one reason why many young people are in the red. The bigger reason why American workers are about $1 trillion in debt is because we don’t get paid enough for our labor.
Things were different when Mr. Z was growing up. Workers had it “good” in the 1940’s, 50’s and 60’s. Their wages rose at about the same rate as productivity. This golden age for labor was not because of capitalist virtues. It was thanks to unions and worker friendly policies from the New Deal and Great Society.
What was especially helpful to Mr. Z and the overwhelming majority of Americans were the tax rates on the wealthy. Things changed as Mr. Z advanced his career during the final quarter of the 20th century. Worker productivity continued to rise. However looser regulations, cheaper overseas labor and lower taxes on the rich stagnated domestic wage growth for the working class. Luckily Mr. Z was mostly insulated from the decline; he had a skilled job in aerospace, followed by a Los Angeles city job.
Hey Mr. Z! That is why Millennials and younger generations have it harder. That is why we have resentment towards seniors with flippant attitudes like you. We watched our working parents not do as well as your generation. And today we experience low wages first hand. Meanwhile you get your cash back rewards.
Mr. Z, we aren’t spending beyond our means. Our jobs simply don’t pay enough.
It's not that young people don’t want to own a home. We just can’t save enough for a down payment. Our towns don’t look worse because young people don’t have respect. Our city doesn’t get enough tax revenue to repair our crumbling infrastructure.
It’s nice that you and your fellow AARP members want to donate a few bucks for a tax write off. That is not enough. We need you to vote for policies and politicians that will end corruption by the plutocracy. We must levy more taxes on the profiteering corporations and individuals on the Forbes 400 richest.
Don’t just reminisce on the good old days Mr. Z. Maybe if you partner with us in the present, we can make a future better than your past. And the plants on the street will look mighty fine too.
(Eramis Goodspiel <[email protected]> was born in 1985 and attended LAUSD schools as a minor; he graduated from the University of California system. He writes anonymously to not jeopardize his employment with the City of Los Angeles.)
