Friday, November 15, 2024

Life Scripts and "The System"

A common complaint in the USA, especially by younger people, is the "life scripts" don't work anymore. Basically there's no easy recipe to achieve the middle class American lifestyle.

When I was in primary school, the educational system, which is just one component of "The System" was setup to track kids into three groups, essentially. There was an "elite" track, which really didn't exist in my local school system. Then a professional track, which meant you'd go to college, and then everybody else.

The "elite" track was for kids in wealthy families basically. They might go to a private school, then go to a fancy college like Harvard or Yale. A couple of my friends did end up in elite schools. One ended up in a cushy job making a 6 figure salary back in 1995 even though she didn't have any special skills or knowledge. The other, sadly, died in college.

The professional track meant you'd go to some random college and end up with a professional job like doctor, lawyer, dentist, engineer, or just some office job. That's the track I was in and most of my friends were in. Most ended up with professional jobs of some kind. Some went and did more interesting things, but were ultimately still reasonably successful. Although a handful of people I know ended up with college debt, no job, and kind of wrecked.

A lot of the kids in the everybody else track went to the military, then college. Some went into the trades and some just got other random jobs until they found their niche.

The generic life scripts associated with the corporate/consumer "system" we live in worked pretty well back in the early 1990s when I started out in post college adult life. A person who even half-assedly applied him or herself in the professional track could at least get a job and earn an income, eventually get a house and even start a family, own a car, go on vacations, etc...

The life scripts were kind of failing already back in the 1990s, though, and included a lot of poison ideas, like going into debt to buy depreciating assets like cars, or to believe a house is an "investment" that will only appreciate in value.

Anyway, by now, the almost every life script is wrecked and does not work. You can be a professional person in certain places in the USA, like Los Angles, and basically be a working class drone unable to buy a house--which would actually be a totally foolish idea if you could slave away and make a $200,000 down payment on a $1M dumpy house with a dirt lawn with a homeless camp on the sidewalk.

The "elite" are trying to push a new set of life scripts, like "own nothing and be happy" on the people, but it looks like a no sale. Anyway, people insisting the old life scripts continue also can't work.


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