Life lessons from my father

April 2, 2020. This is Ed Lorenzi, my father, Eden Central school board member, in the Eden Class of 1971 yearbook Embers. Their yearbook was not nearly is hip, edgy, "cool," or such our class yearbook in 1969, but this one did have -- in addition to picture of dad -- pictures of Fran, Ted and Joe. It was the first class to graduate from the 'new' buildin, which is now a lot older than the 'old' building it replaced almost fifty years ago. Where there were over 200 graduates from ECS in 1971, this year's class will not only not have a graduation ceremony, there will be perhaps half the number of fifty years ago.

The ironic part is that the population of Eden remains the same. The town population just grew much older, with smaller families and empty-nester households. There are no millennials in Eden. My guess is that there are very few single people between the ages of 21 and 30 in Eden, save for a few hereditary farmers, mechanics and dairy men. This article -- Alone -- does an excellent job of expelling what happened. In general, people grew richer, lived longer, had fewer kids, experienced more divorces, produced more single parents, created an entire new class of never marrieds, and all the time increasing the official level of education, while higher ed and healthcare costs ballooned to levels we could have have anticipated in 1971.

The other perverse socioeconomic fact is that the older grew richer as the younger grew poorer. In terms of wealth (assets less liabilities = net worth), elderly Americans are the richest demographic group, while millennials struggle. The current pandemic, coupled with the 2008-09 financial collapse, has made it nearly impossible for those born after 1990 to gain any career traction. And this leads them to support broader socialist support and programs, not realizing that bigger government role in the economy is perhaps the biggest part of the problem, not the solution, 'Free' stuff sounds great, but without meaningful wealth creation, Margaret Thaatcher noted, "sooner or later you run out of other people's money."

Articles on reducing inequality during the pandemic tend to forget that this happens primarily in wealth inequality being reduced as wealth is destroyed during the crisis, making everyone worse off while making their wealth more 'equal.' While the plague increased the value of labor due to depopulation across the board, this virus primarily attacks the elderly, not the prime labor force, other than with the indirect but devastating effect of the lockdowns on low-wage employees in service industries.

There is some optimism around. But it remains best to remain wary of silver bullets, just as we were not able to recognize a black swan. I wish I had Ed Lorenzi around to reassure me. He went through much worse in his life, in terms of challenges -- the Great Depression, World War II, the turbulent Sixties -- and he would be a great aid and comfort today. All your kid miss you Ed; we will always be your kids, looking to dad, regardless of our own ages.

Love,

Peter