As Memorial Day came and went, I found myself wondering what the Greatest Generation thinks of our nation today.
Keep in mind, folks from the Greatest Generation endured the Great Depression and fought valiantly to retain our freedoms in World War II. Journalist Tom Brokaw once wrote of this group that because their everyday lives were about deprivation and sacrifice, it would have been easy enough for the American dream to fade away when the economic conditions of the time were so grave and unrelenting.
Yet, the Greatest Generation ensured the American dream lived on, leaving a better world for the generations that followed. The Greatest Generation valued the notion of work – hard work, at that – and that nothing is given and everything is earned.
Can the same be written of today’s generation, some of whom have rallied behind a presidential candidate who’s campaigning on free college tuition, among other governmental entitlement programs?
Every generation has exceptions, and there are undoubtedly a number of hardworking millennials in the workforce today. But the sense of entitlement that’s emerged among young people presents challenges for industries like the ones PP&E covers. These are industries desperately trying to fill jobs.
Few people want to get their hands dirty anymore. I hear this sentiment continuously, whether I’m visiting with aggregate producers or recyclers who are desperately searching for machine operators and maintenance workers, or equipment manufacturers who are strategizing how to bring more welders or other skilled craftsmen into the fold.
These are real concerns for a nation at a political crossroads.
Because a college education has been accepted as the norm, more kids than ever are pursuing the same available jobs upon graduation. On top of the competitive landscape, a number of college graduates enter the workforce with tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of dollars of debt.
Is the assumption of such debt unfortunate? Yes. The American education system is certainly broken, but every person who assumes college debt does so by choice. No one can force kids to attend college and take on loans – not even parents, who should open up to trade schools and other alternative paths their kids can take to achieve the American dream.
Those from the Greatest Generation didn’t take one path to achieve the American dream. They did, however, arguably unite as one nation as well as any generation in U.S. history.
Our nation is unfortunately more divided now than it has been at any point in my lifetime. Unity is hopefully once again near, but achieving unity will require different generations to come together and recognize which values are American and which are not.
The value of hard work – the kind our blue-collar industries embody – is as American as life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. At least it should be.