Monday Links for April 27, 2015

From the past week, some stories I found interesting...

1.  Have We Seen the End of the 8 Hour Workday - from The Nation, an article exploring and discussing the changing dynamics of work in our country, particularly for those in the retail sector.  Trends towards permanent part time, and scheduling that often isn't set until 1 week before are discussed specifically, and the article notes how such trends effect individuals in their 20s and 30s more prominently.  What I think about, when I read stories like this, is how the lack of stability and predictability in the workforce limits an individual's stability elsewhere.  When the job is in such a constant state of flux and uncertainty, the ability to think about long term investments - particularly real estate and retirement planning - become luxuries for the few, instead of a continuing staple of middle class America.  We often talk (at least in some circles) about wage inequality, but part of that discussion has to include working conditions such as this article discusses.  Those factors impact quality of life just as income does.

2.  Is A New Political System Emerging in this Country - from Bill Moyers website, a longer read discussing some, I think, disturbing trends in U.S. politics.  Lack of participation in elections (along with more restrictive voter ID laws), increase money spent in elections, privatizing the State (including, in particular warfare), and the rise of a national security state (we do have both the National Security Agency and Homeland Security) are all discussed and considered in this piece.  Worthy read, enough to give anyone pause about the potential consequences for the current shifts occurring in our political system.

3. The Oregon Trail Generation - less serious than the above articles, but one I very much related to.  With a birth year of 1981, I am often thrown into the first years of the Millenial generation.  I generally have no real issue with this, but I am often aware that my experiences growing up, and thus the experiences that helped shape and form what I consider culture, and what culture I was exposed to, is significantly different than those born just a few years later.  I understand that with any arbitrary cut off dates, those at the ends kind of get misplaced.  But with how fast things change today, it seems appropriate to, maybe, narrow the ranges of generations.  This piece gets at that point for me - Millenials are often thought of as growing up with technology.  But those born in the first part of 1980s still remember that time before technology became so ubiquitous in everyday life - calling friends on a landline, going to their house (and talking to their parents first), getting a cell phone for use only in emergencies (and several years after I was driving).  Facebook arrived the year after I graduated college - so as the article points out, I didn't have that to share all the questionable things I did (to the extent that I did any).  I built my first music collection using Napster.  I played Oregon Trail during computer lab in elementary and middle school.  I don't have anything against being a Millenial, but the Oregon Trail generation feels more authentic to me.