Counterpoint: Work's about pulling your weight, not finding your bliss

If millennials such as Erin Lowry ("Millennials and the Great Resignation," Opinion Exchange, Nov. 2) learned just a little bit of history, they wouldn't so readily dismiss us baby boomers.

Specifically, they'd learn the history of the 1960s and '70s, of the seismic upheaval of cultural norms and values that took place then, and of the subsequent social advances in so many areas that were largely a result of boomer pressure.

Do millennials really think that their generation is the first to reflect on life choices, career paths and meaning? We boomers were the ones who decided to "Turn on, tune in and drop out."

Do today's millennials suppose they're the first to question "how to value work?" I dare say most boomers are familiar with Cat Stevens' lyrics: "I don't want to work away/ Doing just what they all say/ Work hard boy you'll find/ Some day you'll have a job like mine/ But I know for sure/ Nobody should be that poor."

What insight, what wisdom! As a teenager in the early '70s I just had to share this truth with my mother.

But by that time, as a single mom, she had single-handedly been raising and providing for three school-aged children for four years. She was not impressed.

"Well, someone has to pay the bills."

I was too immature to see her perspective. You know, parents just don't understand. It took me a while, but eventually I came to see her point. Thank you, Mom.

What I didn't understand in my youthful idealism was this cold, hard fact of life: Everyone is a consumer of resources. Even if all we needed to survive was a glass of tap water a day, it still requires capital, energy, time and effort by people to make that glass of water possible.

The general arrangement we have in modern societies is that the resources we consume as children are provided for us. Children in poorer countries often don't have that luxury, and are forced to work for their keep. When we in the rich world reach adulthood, it seems only fair that we each put in effort to provide for ourselves, to "pull our own weight."

If we don't, we are asking other people to do the work that provides the resources we consume. This is fundamentally a selfish position.

The only way civilization works, the only thing that keeps it all afloat, is that people on average produce more than they consume, contribute more than they take. Every time we go to the grocery store, turn on a light switch, turn up the thermostat, get medical treatment, get on a plane to travel to far away places, etc., etc., we are enjoying the benefits of someone's productive work.

To want and expect all this, but not be willing to work, is hypocritical. Not to mention the larger moral and philosophical questions about our obligation to make the best use we can of the talents and aptitudes we were given, to become the best version of ourselves that we can be.

In this light, being a productive, contributing member of society can be seen as the enlightened thing to do — the loving thing to do.

And, let's not forget, most importantly to millennials — it's the cool thing to do.

I understand that the economic landscape has shifted in the last 30 years, and I don't envy young people starting out and trying to make a go of it. But resignation is not a moral option or long-term solution.

I also believe that it's a good thing that young people are socially aware, that they seek justice and equality, that they work to improve society. But they should remember that we boomers have already been there, done that. In fact, we were so active, and filled with such fervor, that we were mocked and made fun of by the "establishment."

Al Capp, author of the cartoon strip "Li'l Abner," created a campus student advocacy group called SWINE — "Students Wildly Indignant about Nearly Everything." (Sound familiar?)

So to all you millennials who think you've discovered social justice advocacy, who dismiss us boomers as an impediment, not so fast. Talk to us. Be ready to consider the "wisdom of the elders." Don't be so quick to mock and dismiss.

You'll find that work and the demands of adulthood have always been difficult and stressful. That burnout is not a new phenomenon. That finding balance and real meaning is not a new struggle.

But remember: In the end somebody has to pay the bills.

Todd Harvey lives in Northfield.