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Expectation and Reality

Which parents do not wish the best for their kids? Which kids (teenagers) ever understand their parents? Hence the arrival of the generation gap. While the parents work to fill the barn with grains for a stormy future; the kids pass out the grains to demonstrate their pride in having what their contemporaries may not have.

This same phenomenon is like the Chinese saying of wealth will not last three generations. The first generation painfully work hard and save to grow the wealth. The second generation appreciates this hardwork and continues to grow but use the wealth cautiously and educate the next generation. The third generation does not see the hardwork, but that they have more than sufficient to use and lose their hunger to find food. Eventually they lose it all through laziness and extravagance.

The Americans spend more than they earn to sustain the growth economy of developing and emerging nations. They owe the rest of the world about thirteen trillion dollars. Here is the live debt clock:

http://www.usdebtclock.org/

When Germany showed a surplus recently, it was chided on not spending enough to encourage the "growth" of the economy during the G20 meeting in Toronto. The Germans did what Chinese believes - save for a rainy day.

http://biz.thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2010/7/17/business/6674620&sec=business

My question is whether any nation can grow double digits while the salary growth is in the low single? Only the top management compensation grows above that. What then will this world eventually become. Will it go back to the feudal society that we left behind?

Coming back to the fundamental of parents' expecation of their kids to do well and better than themselves; will this become a reality? Or is it a dream that will be unfulfilled, as long as they do not understand the fundamental of "sweat, blood and tear" to become a responsible global citizen?

For now, it is tear and trepidation as I look at the next generation growing up with the penchant to consume, and to go into debt, just like the US economy. The only difference as I see it, is that no one dares to collect that $13 trillion; while the bank will not hesitate to do that to the kids with a deluded sense of "ownership" which in reality is "oweingship".

May the expectation meet the reality somewhere in their growth to adulthood.

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