Economic Despair - AskMen
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      Economic Despair

      Economic Despair


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      Quick hypothetical poll: How many of you reading this (thank you, by the way) are doing so at work? I would bet it’s a lot of you. But not all of you.

      I’m not writing about unemployment per se, because if you’re single and employed, you probably don’t think about it a whole lot, and if you’re unemployed, I guarantee you think about it all the time and don’t need to hear me talk about it. But I think it’s a good place to start a (one-sided) conversation about the general mood resonating throughout the country lately, one of general helplessness and despair.

      Since 2007, there hasn’t really been a lot to be happy or even hopeful about, at least on the grander scale of things. Unemployment is high, home prices and the DJIA are still low. Lehman Brothers and Bear Stearns collapsed before they had the chance to read my unequivocally impressive job applications. The dollar is relatively weak, and we owe the world (particularly China) a metric buttload of money.

      But things could be worse. For a while there, it seemed like people — our leaders — had an idea of what needed to be done. Or at least they pretended to. Stimulus plans, bailouts, all of it was rooted in restoring stability and confidence. Even if they missed the mark, we didn’t completely freak out for a couple of reasons: 1) Someone important and seemingly capable was trying to do something, and 2) If nothing else, we knew why things were in the toilet.

      What's worth rioting for?

      But things are different now. In my case, I realized it a month or so ago with the London riots. Initially, I figured it was in protest of something, and since I didn’t know why they were happening because I follow the news about as much as Gwyneth Paltrow probably follows the UFC, I chalked it up to ignorance. I was a little more distressed when I asked my more culturally enlightened friends and they didn’t know either. No one knew. Men were rioting in the streets of London because…They were angry? Sad? Bored? Constipated? No one seemed to have an answer. A riot with just cause can be entertaining; a riot for no reason is terrifying.

      What the London riots did do was make me think. Why were people so distraught that they would destroy a city for literally no reason? Then it hit me: the helplessness. Whereas before our leaders at least thought they had a plan, now no one seems to know what to do to re-route downward spirals. All efforts to shore up the well-being of middle class and poor people have failed, and at this point, the people we elected to handle these things are all but throwing up their hands in futility, as though nothing more can be done.

      When people lack an explanation for something, they react. When people had no answer for why the sun rose every day, they created mythology and folktales. When people didn’t know why the economy and life in general were still in the toilet, they lit stuff on fire. It’s a natural reaction, to be discouraged by and to lash out at the unknown. That sense of helplessness, the feeling of not knowing, leads a lot of men to despair. I don’t think it’s localized within any one generation, either. Regardless of age or status, it’s easy these days to catch yourself feeling pretty low. Even the most seemingly stable among us can find their minds plagued with doubt and fear of what tomorrow will bring.

      For men (and women) my age in particular, there’s been a lot written about the idea of the “quarter-life crisis,” a feeling or mood or state of mind that befalls listless 20-somethings. Young adults find themselves in a state of limbo and depression, not knowing their current place in the world, let alone their place 10 or even five years from now. I can tell you that it’s a very real feeling, and to me, despite its self-indulgent undertones, it makes a lot of sense.

      Better off than our parents were? Hardly.

      For starters, if we look to our parents as an example, by the time they were in their mid-20s most of them were married and relatively stable in their careers. Some of them had even had us by that point. In contrast, in our time, the cost of living has outpaced wages, so, absolute dollar values aside, many of us are actually doing worse than our parents were at the same age, and we almost certainly have more debt than they did.

      Times may be bad, but here's why you shouldn't despair...

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