One of the anthems we had when in our teenage years was ‘We’re Not Gonna Take It’ by Twisted Sister, written by Dee Snider. And he didn’t when it came to many things, including testifying in a Senate hearing against censorship. He’s been a pretty interesting figure throughout the years, and it’s pretty clear that if there were two piles, he would probably be more in the “We’re not gonna take it” pile.

My generation, coming of age, well… we kinda took it. It’s not that we had many options, the world was changing faster and faster, corporations were buying each other out and axing human resources like Aztec priests, all with the best of intentions.

Like the Aztec priests.

There is this thought of intentionality when we look at things about trickle-down economics, where those ‘temporarily inconvenienced millionaires’ will defend it in the hope that one day they will be on the right side of it, while on the other side of it you have those who think it was done to their groups personally.

Whether there was intentionality or not is silly to debate. When we look at the facts, economic disparity has increased. Not much has trickled down no matter how hard one works, and what’s worse is we find that where it trickles the least, the costs go up the most.

We were told if we worked hard, things would succeed, but this we have pretty much found to be a way to keep people busy doing things to make other people money. Technology promising productivity enhancements is much the same thing.

Segue: “Will AI be an economic blessing or curse? History offers clues” is slightly related here.

When we factor in population growth with medical advances, we have more people living longer. As I joked with a young pharmacist last week, “I pay you for my medications so that I can live longer so I can pay you more for my medications.” It was a quip, but the thought of that recursion can be a little dispiriting. We live longer, yet to what end? My generation shoved quite a few elderly into nursing homes, and government generational ponzi schemes of retirement have become burdened.

I think even though we GenX folk have had our own challenges, lived very different lives than generations before and after, even being called the leaded generation, we need to remember the song that even now is on the lips of Ukrainians.

Maybe we need to revisit it. Dee Snider did. Still does. I don’t want to be a part of a generation sung about.