A part of me envies the adolescent pothead skipping class everyday.
I’m sure you know someone that fits that very broad description, whether it be someone in your dorm, the person who slept through your chemistry class in high school, or maybe you are that person.
Stoners are always the coolest people; they seem chill, like they don’t have a care in the world, and who wouldn’t want that?
Life seems to work out for them in one way or another without them stressing out.
Between taking classes, working at The Post, spending time with friends, maintaining a long-distance relationship, having time for family, eating and occasional sleeping, I would consider myself a little overworked.
But I’m not trying to complain to get pity, because I have little to complain about. In fact, I’m positive that many people I know work nearly twice as hard as I do (including, but not limited to, the people I know at The Post).
And the oddest part is, we all work this hard so that we can get a job and have a successful career for which we will have to work even harder.
In a best-case scenario, we retire at 65 years old and use our saved money to travel the world we never got to see while we were young.
Why do we do this to ourselves? Our generation is expected to be more multi-capable than any generation before.
It wasn’t always like this. We used to be able to support a family of four on a single factory job salary.
Now, families struggle to support themselves, even with two parents working multiple jobs.
It’s because businesses and corporations in America are only focused on the bottom line — money. CEOs and presidents realized that if they cut wages, benefits and general working conditions, they could lower costs and increase profits.
Now business is looking to combine multiple jobs, in order to squeeze more work out of us. And this consolidation makes us work harder in college to learn all the necessary skills to survive in a competitive market.
Along with a concentrated attack against labor unions from businesses, they have no problem taking away vacation days and other benefits from their employees. Keep in mind, these perks have been enjoyed by European countries for years now.
We saw that attack here in Ohio when just last year Gov. John Kasich and the republican establishment attempted to limit union rights for state employees. Voters repealed the law for a big victory for the working class.
Sadly, unions are still declining although they could do a lot for this country to improve working conditions, benefits and wages.
Labor unions and workers’ rights programs could benefit the working class in this country, but as long as money and politics are as deeply intertwined as they are now, the work of business interests will always trump the good intentions of other interest groups.
And I can’t help thinking that no matter how much work people on this campus put into their desired occupation, they will fall short of their dreams, and only the lucky or privileged get ahead in life.
OK, that’s pretty depressing and over-the-top, but I think it weighs on all our minds from time to time.
Putting in all this work we do will help even the odds that are stacked against us even if it feels hopeless at times.
Sometimes it’s necessary to just lay back and think like a stoner — things tend to work out.
William Hoffman is a freshman studying journalism and political science and is a columnist for The Post. Email him at wh092010@ohiou.edu.
