Dirty Cup Part II

Seems like I'm not the only one who believes in crusty tea cups. Julian, a follower of this blog, says disgusting habits like mine are traditional in Asia--and here reprinted with his permission is his own "dirty cup" story: 

About your "dirty" cup: it happens that the tea residue on teapots is traditional in Asia, and supposedly adds to the flavor. So, once upon a time, in my rolling stone years, I carried with me a little green porcelain teapot that I stole from my mother and that I never washed. It got nice and brown on the inside. I brewed tea very strong and drank a lot and had my little rituals. 

When I left England to start a new job at Oakland University, my little pot, broken and mended several times, but still nicely brown on the inside, made its second trans-Atlantic voyage and sat on my new office's bookshelf. And then I came in to work one day and the sweet mid-Western woman who was the department secretary had taken pity on the new twenty-something male instructor with the beard and odd habits, and scrubbed his filthy teapot!! It's never been the same since. In fact, I disposed of it a few years ago after yet another break. It never acquired the same patina. 

As for the secretary, we became good friends. She was about 10 years older than I. The former department head, who had hired me en passant, so to speak, as he left, had been a bit irascible and she missed him. So when I started writing very biting letters to various people, she really enjoyed typing them up. Then we would keep them for a day, and write something a bit more more subtle (and polite). She was the one I miss most there when I left. I even forgave the clean teapot, although for the rest of my life, I have never had one as good. 

This cup hasn't been washed in 8 years

Every afternoon at work I have a cup of green tea after lunch to help avert a mid-day stupor. This is the cup I have been using for nearly the past decade. It has never been washed!

I got the inspiration for not washing this cup from an old Ironside TV show in the late 1960s starring Raymond Burr (aka Perry Mason) as the crippled Chief of Detectives Robert T. Ironside. Though a brilliant crime-solver, he had a nasty temperament and very strong opinions about most things. He was notorious for making his coffee in a beat-up tin pot and insisting that the pot never be rinsed or washed between makings.

Of course this grossed out his fellow detectives and became a running joke thoughout the series and you could count on Ironside's explosive temper getting the better of him if anyone came near the pot with soap and water.

Yes, my cup has gotten the stink eye from several co-workers and some suggeset that it could be harboring all kinds of nasty microbes. I counter with the fact that I seldom get sick, which may be attributable to the resistance I've built up against nasty microbes in general based on drinking from a filthy cup.

But here's the news. I have retired the cup. Recently my group moved to a new building--a brand new building in Newark. A spanking clean, pristine high rise with ultra modern conveniences and state-of-the-art amenities. As the most veteran member of my department, I'm not sure that his dog quite fits in at our new digs. But I do know that my cup doesn't.

I guess its time to make changes. I have a new cup for my daily tea, and I'm not sure if I'll wash this one either. If I don't, it might be a little charming to have a grungy little fixture in my current antiseptic environment. Or maybe I should get on the stick and make it as sparkling clean as everything else around me.

I'm torn.

As for the old cup, I was thinking of a ritual smashing. But it has served me well and it still doesn't leak. At this point it is unclean-able. Maybe I should plant something in it. A mini tea-tree?

My new cup

Our Kids are Being Left Behind

As made clear in this article in the NY Times, the millennial generation, those between the ages of 18 and 34, are on track to endure less prosperity and more insecurity in their lives than preceding generations.

As the writer points out, despite being better educated, more socially connected, and just as energetic as previous generations, millennials have lower earnings, higher debt, higher unemployment, and fewer career opportunities.

As the article states, this generation is "faced with a slow economy, high unemployment, stagnant wages and student loans that constrict their ability both to maintain a reasonable lifestyle and save for the future." The days of paying for college with part-time jobs and summer work that many in my baby boomer population were able to depend on are long over. Also, jobs out of college pay less on an inflation-adjusted basis compared to prior generations.

So what can be done? First, the economy needs real growth, which isn't happening now. There must be more investment--in infrastructure, education, and research--all of which could lead to jobs, and higher paying jobs--especially for this generation. And with interest rates as low as they are, there's never been a better time to spend.

What the article gets wrong is its focus on the national debt "problem," which is not really a problem. The solutions mentioned above will help grow the economy and will pay for themselves through a broadened tax base, especially from better-employed millennials.

But taxes will have to go up (mostly on the wealthy) given the level of government participation needed to jumpstart the economy. As it is, Americans pay much less per capita than other first world countries, despite what the Grover Norquists of the world say, and much less than what we paid during the glory years of President Reagan.

And, once again, there is no need to make cuts in Social Security and Medicare, which are on reasonably sound financial footing (except for SSI disability) and require only minor tweaks over the next 15 years to remain so for the next 50 years. The article's author, of course, is a Wall Street guy and Wall Street guys just hate so-called entitlement programs--especially those like Social Security and Medicare, which are self-funding.

I have two kids in the millennial generation, and like any dad, I want to see my kids to better than me, at least from a financial standpoint. The situation they face today is unfair and not of their doing. But there are clear-cut answers at hand.