Hungry? or just Snacky?

Listening to the radio on one of my looonnnggg drives today. On Point, a pretty good issues and interviews radio show produced by WBUR of Boston had an hour on "Jobs and the Class of 2009." It featured a panel of three recent grads discussing their not too terribly successful attempts at finding work so far. I got the distinct feeling that they weren't so much searching for gainful employment as they were rooting through the refrigerator trying to find something to eat. I noted that none of them seemed truly hungry. They were still at that sort of snacky stage where they knew they wanted something to eat, but weren't quite sure what and they seemed more than willing to stand there with the door propped open until inspiration struck. I wondered how long it would take before pretty much anything mom plopped down in front of them would be the most delicious thing ever.

Of course, this is because the question you face at 24 is very different than the question you face at 46. Early on it's about passion, joy, meaning. How can I find a job that I love? What do I really enjoy doing?

At least, that's the question if you are a middle-class recent college grad who has supportive parents with a basement room with free internet access. On the other hand, when middle aged become a more important descriptor than middle-class; when dependents become a bigger fact than dependence; when you have no financial margin and not even any margarine...the choice becomes simple, although not necessarily easier.

I found the discussion fascinating, but I kept thinking about what these kids will do in 20 years if they find themselves in a similar spot. Probably, like me, they will take a job selling appliances, while launching out on an entrepreneurial adventure just to try to forestall the foreclosure monsters and keep everyone in shoes and oatmeal a little longer. And...be grateful for the opportunity. At a certain point, fulfillment becomes more about a full belly then a full heart.

And that's OK.

Bad Bank

Here is the next installment on economics from the radio program This American Life by NPR. This episode is titled Bad Bank. You may want to take a sedative before listening to this, but by all means, listen. It will clarify much. You can click here to go to the website. Click on the icon for the "Full Episode" to stream it for free. It is about an hour long, so get some tea or coffee, maybe a little snack and plan to settle in for a while.

The most important part comes toward the end where they discuss who is REALLY to blame for this whole fiasco. Their conclusion is consonant with my thinking all along.

The Giant Pool of Money

I don’t listen to This American Life – the very hip, slightly cynical, often ironic radio program on NPR – very often. Mostly because I never know what’s coming next. It might be profanity, references to various sexual practices or values, or just stories that are hard for even adults to swallow. The days the program is on I am commonly listening along with my children, but I can’t always see what’s coming to turn it down. What's more, the program tends to have kind of a nasal, slightly whiny tone. It's as if the timbre of the Ira Glass's voice bleeds over into the very spirit and ethos of the program. The world of TAL is just too defined by the odd, abnormal, bleeding, perverse and twisted. Admittedly, it's often delivered with sardonic humor, or even heartfelt pathos, often at the same time. It's fine in small doses. Even interesting and entertaining. Yet there is something about it that makes me feel kind of slimy when the program is over. It needs washing out with some plain wholesome outdoor activity or some act of simple naive faith. I would love to just have Ira over for an afternoon of splitting wood, stone wall building, or even a long walk in the mountains. Something where whining is not accepted and good hard physical work is a wholesome cure for many ills.

So, after Car Talk and Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me are over, I usually just turn the radio off for most of the afternoon. That's because my kids listen. Then they think. Then they ask questions about stuff they have heard on the radio. On balance this has been very good. It has stimulated some really interesting conversations. But…there are some topics that I’d just as soon wait awhile before having to address them. Among those topics I would include homosexuality, adultery, fornication, divorce, abortion, child abuse, and other forms of domestic violence, to name a few.

Last May, however, they broadcast one of the finest programs I have ever heard. It was called “The Giant Pool of Money. The topic was the national mortgage meltdown. One might argue that this is certainly a topic too spicy and fraught with moral ambiguity to allow small children anywhere near it. I would disagree because while sex is obviously way too hard a topic to discuss with children, uncontrolled avarice, and government toppling corruption are just fine, along with graphic violence (I’m kidding folks!).

I strongly recommend clicking on the link and taking 59 minutes or so to listen to the program. If you click on the icon for “full episode” you can hear the program streamed for free. If you wish to save it you can download it for a small fee.

In a few days, I will be posting a link to TAL’s latest attempt to explain the practical economics of our time with a program on the current Banking Crisis. I have a few thoughts on both of these subjects that I will post shortly. I don’t think my thoughts are anything particularly new or startling. They are just what I have been thinking about as we all watch things progressively unravel around us.

These are, indeed, interesting times.