"'But it is not just about your current earnings,' the detractor continues, 'It is about the wages you lose while in the programme.' To which the 30-something, having spent their adult life in an economy of stagnant wages and eroding opportunities, takes the 20-something aside, and explains that this is a maxim they, too, were told, but from which they never benefited. They tell the 20-something what they already know: It is hard to plan for what is already gone.
"We live in the tunnel at the end of the light."