Opinion

Stop worrying about money

Alex Wukman
Opinionated Columnist

Here's an exercise: Go up to a floor on any skyscraper in any city -- the higher the better -- and look out at the city sprawled out to the horizon like a child in bed. At a scenic height‚ the city will fool people into believing it's almost civilized.

This is because the higher a person goes the less he or she sees. The view from the 32nd floor bears no relation to that from the second. Once eight stories are cleared the connection to the street is lost.

After the connection to the street disappears the city looks like an accomplishment, not the monster it is. With a good view‚ the roads and freeways intersect and define the buildings, but the traffic and accidents can't be seen. The people look like ants scurrying to and fro, but the homeless and muggers‚ seem to melt into the shadows.

The only thing that can be seen more clearly at 30 stories than on the pavement is how out of touch with reality many people are. How afraid they are to get close to those they see as being beneath them.

The world that exists in the upper strata is not the same world inhabited by those who seek to eke out a day to day living. In the top floors of the skyscrapers, that thrust like erect penises from the streets below, a world exists that is so far removed from reality it's laughable.

The executives worrying about layoffs are not those hit hardest by a recession. They are not the ones in danger of losing everything to a minor dip in the market -- those who are living day-to-day, paycheck-to-paycheck and hand-to-mouth.

The families who are just getting by will never have a nest egg to fall back on. The working poor most likely will become the out-of-work poor. The rapidly shrinking middle class will inevitably shrink more and more.

It will keep going until the entire nation looks like Austin -- divided between the incredibly rich and the incredibly poor, with nothing in between. Since no one wishes to be on the poor side, everyone wants a high-paying job.

Already students go through college not worried about learning something they love; they major in things that they hope will allow them to make $100,000 or more a year.

An entire generation is seeking to make money simply for money's sake. Many people do not go to college to educate themselves but to learn a skill that will allow them to make money.

Colleges have changed from bastions of higher learning into glorified trade schools. Everyone seems to be majoring in the same things -- subjects designed not to better their understanding of the universe but to make them more marketable.

Parents push their children to forego liberal arts degrees simply to ensure that they will have a job in some booming industry.

Our culture has brainwashed us into believing that people who do not aspire to make money, who wish to do other things, are somehow damaged.

The message we cram down a 6-year-old's throat during primetime television is one of materialism, consumerism, and anti-intellectualism.

Apparently the concept of the Renaissance man perished with Ben Franklin and Thomas Jefferson. No longer do we want people to be multitalented and very well educated. No longer do we want warrior-scholars or athletic intellectuals.

We are more concerned with a person's earning potential than with their understanding. Fathers do not put as high a priority on the boy his daughter is bringing home as they do on his parents‚ bank balance.

The media have proclaimed Generation Y as the saviors of America even before the majority are out of junior high. It will be interesting to watch these saviors deal with what will become another Vietnam, a recession and a loss of civil liberties and rights unequaled since WWII.

Perhaps we should not look to the children to save the world from our mistakes. Instead we should take the reigns ourselves and re-examine our own culture.

Wukman, a junior creative writing major, can be reached at alex_wukman@hotmail.com.