Monday Morning: Feeling entitled? Here’s a surefire cure

Forget the compromised ozone layer and Firestone’s exploding tires. What’s really got me miffed is the fact that the United States may actually skirt a recession.

It’s not that I want to see the U.S. economy backslide for any length of time. But a few quarters of negative growth would be good for the soul of America – and ultimately for corporate America.

Without a recession, a whole generation of Americans who have just entered the work force – or are about to – will think employment, job security and free coffee are inalienable rights.

Sure, we’ve seen some corporate layoffs. But unemployment is still relatively low.

Sure, consumer confidence is down, but that hasn’t stopped people from running up credit card debt to record highs.

And worst of all, soon-to-be college graduates remain optimistic about owning stock options and a BMW by the time they’re 25.

Way back when, in the dark ages of the early 1990s, when most of us had to walk through six yards of snow to get our mail from the mailbox instead of the computer, I graduated from college.

I entered the world with the haughty notion that companies would be tripping over one another to woo me with a top-notch salary and benefits package.

Instead, I was greeted by a recession and by the unpleasant reality that no one wanted to hire me, despite my flowery resume.

In fact, it took six months before a company offered me a full-time job in my field. I eagerly accepted it without giving a second thought to salary, working conditions or the quality of the office coffee.

I was so thankful to finally have a job (read paycheck) that it didn’t occur to me to be dissatisfied with my job or my employer.

Absent the recession, I would probably have started my professional life thinking corporate America actually owed me something besides a paycheck. At the very least, I would have complained about the coffee.

OK, I now secretly do my fair share of complaining. But that’s only because I’m a journalist, a profession predisposed to malcontentedness.

But my complaints would likely be far worse – and shouted more loudly – if it weren’t for my experience of trying to waltz into the work force as if I owned it.

That isn’t to say I don’t feel bad for the people who have been laid off in recent months. I truly do.

But I can guarantee one thing: Those who have coasted or have been chronic complainers will never again be complacent about their jobs.

There’s nothing like the lack of a paycheck to make people realize that a less-than-perfect job is better than no job at all.

Believe it or not, my view is an entirely unselfish one.

I have as vested an interest as the next person in rising corporate profits and a healthy stock market. I’ve got a very small nest egg that has withered over the last year, and a college fund for a 3-year-old that right now would struggle to handle the cost of four textbooks.

I feel the way I do for the good of America as a whole. We’ve got a selfish-enough, do-me-right-or-die, blame-someone-else society as it is. Get a good recession going, and that should do the trick.

Sarah O’Brien is a reporter for InvestmentNews.

Related Topics: Just Thinking