IF WE ACKNOWLEDGE HOW EASY OUR LIVES ARE HOW CAN WE WHINE ABOUT THEM?:

Job Outlook: Not So Gloomy (John Tamny, 01.18.10, Forbes)

As is often the case during periods of economic pain, the conventional wisdom is divorced from reality. Indeed, for those (including this writer) who entered the labor force back in the somewhat recessionary early '90s, much of the commentary at the time centered on how "Generation X" wouldn't achieve its parents' lifestyles; it didn't take too long before a technology and finance boom made a disaffected Generation X the richest of them all.

Just as periods of economic uncertainty almost invariably lead to calls for the very trade barriers that reduce economic opportunity, so do downturns always coincide with overdone worry concerning the ability of new labor force entrants to achieve economically in ways that previous entrants once did. History, along with basic economic logic tell us that emotion, rather than rational thought, is driving this latest bout of low economic self-esteem.