THE CUT AND PASTE GENERATION

[DMCKEON]

The Stock Market tanked another 700 points yesterday and we had our two presidential candidates blaming their opponent's parties for the state of the economy.

Unfortunately both candidates seem to be missing the big picture.

It is not what has happened in the last eight years or even in the last sixteen.

The problem is that we have become a cut and paste society and original thinking has all but disappeared from this generation.

Just ask any student when was the last time they visited a library to do real research.

Why should they when with the click of a cursor they can get all of the information they need.

Ask them to write an essay and see how many spelling errors or "text abbreviations" you find.

And you can forget about grammar all together.

But why do they need to worry when they all have spell and grammar check on their computers.

And it is not only the student's fault.

School rankings are based on success in standardized tests.

So students are taught to pass those tests.

Shortcuts are instituted to bypass anything that is not covered on these standardized tests.

And the problems just gets worse and worse.

An entire industry now exists to teach students to pass High School entrance exams and SAT tests.

Shortcuts....shortcuts....shortcuts.

And this extends to the business world as well.

These same students have become today's executives.

The majority of whom have never worked their way up the corporate ladder.

No real on the job training and more importantly no common sense.

Personal gain overshadowing corporate responsibility.

And why not!

This is a generation that has been able to fast forward most of their lives while skipping over or deleting anything that has gotten in their way.

A generation of "Guitar Heroes" who can't read a note of music.

A generation who do not know the value of a dollar and whose lives are "PRICELESS" or who "WON"T LEAVE HOME" without their credit cards

And these are the people who are now making the corporate decisions that have brought our country to the brink of bankruptcy.

They are the same people taking these ideas into government who think that a $10 trillion national debt is not a concern.

So we will have to work till we die as our 401K's disappear and Social Security goes bankrupt.

As the new cut and paste generation takes the place of the old cut and run generation before them

We can only pray that the day will come when they begin to realize that Real Life is not something you watch on MTV.

And hopefully that day comes soon.