A Paradigm Shift

I was watching a movie and one of the guys in the scene made reference to his age group being the coffee and cigarettes generation while those before were the coffee and pie generation. So I thought to myself, what generation do I belong to? Well, I imagine I am of the soy latte with splenda and keep-that-cigarette-away-from-me generation but I'm not thinking gastronomically right now. If there is a proper name for my contemporaries, us knocking on thirty but not yet there, then I think it must be the Rich Dad Poor Dad generation. Did you read that book? It’s the one where Poor Dad advised that his son go to school and get a secure job while Rich Dad taught that one shouldn't let fear of poverty and desire for obsessions trap them in a low paying unfulfilling job. When I take a look around today I notice that the majority of people I meet that decided to move away from that traditional paradigm of going to school and getting a secure job are generally better off. They have more money, they have more time and they seem much happier. Those of us who have the degrees (“the ole sheepskin” in the words of a gentleman I once met) seem to be in some sort of trap. We’re short on money and we have no time. As to happiness, we seem to be dreaming of the day when some manner of fulfillment will manifest. I believe that what we are witnessing is something of a paradigm shift where more people are deciding to strike out on their own and make their own mark on the economy without the perceived security of the degree to fall back on. They take the fear of poverty and turn it into a kind of fuel that drives them toward economic security while the others use that same fear as an excuse to remain content in their cubicle amidst endless piles of paperwork that have no meaning doing a job that has no bearing.