Baby Boomers have all the money

One reason millennials and generation x cohorts resent the boomer generation is because they see them as undeservedly wealthy with advantages they never had. There is some truth to that. When I went to college tuition was $400 a year at a state institution for an undergraduate degree. Houses were much cheaper too.

It's not that we didn't struggle. When a lot of the younger boomers entered the job market in the mid seventies the oil crisis and other events made entry level jobs very hard to find, at least for liberal arts majors. There was a teacher glut. In my case I went on to get a library science degree. Then I found out there was a librarian glut. Tiny libraries in South Jersey would post a beginning position and get hundreds of resumes from all over the country. It took me ten years and two cross country moves and a salary cut to land a beginning reference position. 

Another problem the boomers had was the cultural one. Growing up in the sixties, we were led to expect that we would all be able to live a bohemian lifestyle as adults. The long hairs, the rock bands, the counterculture led us to believe that we would make livings from pottery, playing the guitar and acting in avant garde productions. 

The fifties and sixties were a time for great wealth for Americans. Unfortunately, that wealth became dissipated as the march of time progressed. Like the great houses in England in the 1920s slowly had to be sold after World War 2. Today the survivors of that generation are living in London and working for non profits. Today's young people have to live in reduced circumstances, at least until the baby boomers depart for Heaven leaving their homes and stocks to their heirs. 

Existentialism

Existentialism or terms like existential threat are constantly being bandied about in modern podcasts and YouTube videos. It seems like the word is in constant use. When I was college I took a course in French literature and remember reading Sartre and Camus and being told they were existentialists. I once knew someone who bragged about having "existentialist friends". 

Today existentialism defines everything and nothing. David Byrne is an existentialist songwriter. Basquiat was an existentialist artist.  Jessica Tarlov is an existentialist. Elon Musk is an existentialist. Amy Acton's mother is an existentialist. It is easy to define someone as an existentialist. Oat meal is a popular existentialist breakfast food. Rosicrucians are not existentialists.

 

Artificial Intelligence

 

One of the most talked about social, economic, and technological developments in recent times is AI.  It helps us with our internet searches, our medical tests and reminds us of our social duties. If we forget to respond to an email, it reminds us. It can explain our blood work in easy-to-understand language. Apparently, if we believe the commercials, it can produce glasses that almost let the blind see. And for those of us who have money in the stock market, at least for now, it has led to healthy returns in the S and P and NASDAQ.

For AI to work, however, requires large networks of super computers in large energy intensive data centers. AI can also make jobs obsolete. My first job at Title Data and subsequent jobs as a reference librarian could potentially be obsolete. AI probably won't kill off civilization, but it can cause mischief. 

If we are of the gung ho philosophy we may regret it. One thinks of Hal in 2001 a space odyssey.  Of course we don't want to be luddites. 

Editor's note: It's funny the things that made one a luddite fifteen years ago. I admit I still play 45s on my record player. 

Pretenders to the Throne

 

Soon, the United Kingdom and the United States will both have pretenders to the throne. The British will have competing princes of William and Harry. They will have simultaneous events. The young, hip set will go to see Harry and Meghan while the traditionalists will ignore them and only go to events headed by the king and his legitimate heirs, ie. William and Kate.

After the November elections, the United States will have the king, President Trump, and his pretenders to the throne, led by the Democratic Congress. Everything the king wants will be opposed by the Democrats, who will withhold funding for all of the king's schemes. The war in Iran will be blocked, the monuments to the king will be blocked. Eventually the pretenders will seek to take away the powers of the king. In Britain, the real king will win out as the pretenders will be bankrupted. In the old days there would be beheadings. 

Jackson Hole

 

When I was a librarian at the Department of Labor, I knew I could look forward every fall to getting, and cataloguing, the Federal Reserve Board publication on the papers and speeches of the Jackson Hole event. 

People often wonder why such an august event is held in a vacation destination in the Grand Teton National Park. The consensus is that it is held there to provide a bit of fresh air to the beleaguered officers of the Federal Reserve Board.  Apparently, Paul Voelker hated meetings but loved to fly fish. Fishing, hiking, and lavish dinners make the weekend a fun one for the participants. I wonder if they fly commercial or take private planes to get there. 

The new chairman, in his opening speech, references the hiking trails and the hiking styles of various officers. This statement evoked the nervous laughter that appears when your boss makes a joke. "He made a joke!" and everybody guffaws. He then went on to hint at future rate hikes. Wall Street was not amused. 

Harry Partch

 

At some point in my college career I discovered Harry Partch. In the early 70s possibly in New York or perhaps at the junk store Browse on Route 4 in Fairlawn, New Jersey, I bought the World of Harry Partch. Harry Partch was an avant garde composer and an inventor of instruments (some of his instruments are in the Smithsonian). I remember playing his music on one of my college radio shows at Rutgers. 

I remember showing off my collection of Harry Partch, Pharoh Sanders records and the ESP Sampler in my parents' basement. My girlfriend at the time, a music major, said, "Oh ----- you like anything that's weird!". I was getting a reputation at school for liking weird music and even playing it on the radio. 

Recently I rediscovered Mr. Partch. There is a nice live performance of Castor and Pollux on You Tube. The performers are having so much fun, at times skipping across the stage. Since Mr. Partch produced the instruments with his own keys built in, it is not as difficult to play as it may seem. 

After missing my long-lost album of fifty years I have bought a new copy of the World of Harry Partch on Ebey. This time with no scratches. 

The old men discuss AOC

• Jack: So Henry ya heard the latest?
• Henry: Nope.
• Jack: AOC is freezing her eggs.
• Bill: Well Wilma does that occasionally to that pasta she makes, but I've never heard of freezing eggs.
• Jack: Not that kind of eggs, AOC that Spanish politician lady who talks so much. The biological eggs. 
• Henry; Well I don't know. I think there are things in this world that a man doesn't need to know. 
• Bill: She wants Medicare for all.
• Henry: I hope that doesn't pass through Congress. The doctor's office is already too busy. If anything, they should raise the age of Medicare.