"Can I hit in the MORNING without givin you half of my dough And even worse if I was broke would you WANT ME?"

The immortal words of the Jay-Z.
A moment of silence, please.

I have been sidelined at work with..well...work. The past 2 days have been chock-full of irritating co-worker encounters, pointless demos, and more reminders of how often I do other people's jobs for less money in less time. I really need to work on my efficiency skills. And get rid of that pesky work ethic.

The 10am Diane Rehm show centered around the Electoral College. I recall the infamous 2000 election (man, check out the red/blue split! Who says regionalism is dead?!) during which I guilted a whole lot of people into voting for the first time. Imagine their disgust when the whole mess blew up and the antiquated Electoral College was left standing in the center of the dust with everyone's fingers pointing directly at it. I had a slightly different reaction, being a lover of all things ceremonial. I was outraged, of course, at losing the election to G.W.B., but just sort of shrugged my shoulders and said "that's the way the electoral college works." Which brings us to the Diane Rehm show today. Wikipedia really does a remarkable job of explaining the arguments on both sides of the aisle, but today the one that stood out to me was from a John Anderson. He repeatedly said that the Electoral College is responsible for the younger generation not getting out to vote. Why bother voting if you know the outcome of your state's electoral vote? If I'm a Democrat who lives in Arkansas, or a Republican who lives in California--who really cares if I vote or not? He made a case for this aiding to the apathy of youth in this country. Eh. I disagree. The Electoral College is merely a minor symptom of the disease known as America's Apathetic Youth Generation. 18-30 year olds don't care about the Electoral College. They care about their skyrocketing costs for education and the inevitable mountains of debt that will result in them graduating from an institution of higher learning. They care about being a college graduate who lacks any marketable skills who is willing to take a job that didn't require them to take the $120,000 for the loan in the first place. They care about affordable housing in cities and towns that don't completely suck. They care that this mythological "American Dream" their parents assured them existed is in fact a lifetime of working jobs that are barely tolerable, credit cards that will never be paid off, rising health care costs that no average person could ever afford, and politicians who every four years tell you that they can solve your problems despite having no idea what it's like to go home to a freezing cold apartment, a choice of a can of beans or ramen noodles for supper, and the monthly decision to pay your student loans or your rent.