But it will happen.  For 20 years I have worked in public health care.  Since the beginning of this career, I have listened to dozens of managers and/or leaders pontificate on how wasteful it is to have “silos” of power and money – in other words: departments that compartmentalize job functions.  For example, mental health care does not include substance abuse treatment, does not include eating disorders and further does not address behaviorally induced chronic illnesses.

Every single manager I have ever met always wants the “other” department head to give up power, thus facilitating coordination and economies of scale.  No one (that I have ever met) is willing to give up their own power for the greater good.  In this country, we waste billions of dollars on redundancy and dis-organization and most for the purpose of power silos, in other words, unnecessary compartmentalization of functions.  People like their power; it is not something that most will give up.

Here is the thing that I can foresee.  I know young people very well; lots of them are related to me.  I believe that they will change things; indeed, the truth is, they already have done that, no question.  I think that they will change the whole dynamic of bureaucracy and government.  I do not think that they will tolerate the misappropriations that have run so rampant in America for the last 75+ years. 

I am basing this conclusion on a couple of different concepts.  One is that I see that this generation is very serious about parenting.  The quality of fatherhood has increased because our society highly values fathering of children.  I see young men indulging in their love for their children, whereas their fathers may have shied away from such exhibitions of emotion.  This is good for us.  We are better humans when we share and express love.  Now engaged, it is difficult to disengage.  An engaged father finds it much more difficult to be inhumane to others, read: less willing to cheat and steal.

The second (two) concept is…authenticity, they’ve got it in spades! 

My generation (and I am a late baby boomer) were professional fakers, our fondest wish was to compete with the Joneses.  We may have started out as hippies and flower children, but it was a way of thinking that did not stick with us.  Instead, we competed with each other and put on massive charades.  This we did, in a number of ways, including faking happiness and a good marriage, extreme credit card debt and spousal cheating.  All of these processes involve lots of lying, the opposite of authenticity.  Our adult kids do not put up with this nonsense. 

I am not saying that there is not a huge interest in “getting rich quick” and “rapping your way to wealth”, what I am saying, is that, in spite of the romanticism with fame and fortune, our kids are much less willing to be fake and put on these types of charades.  I find young people to be much more willing to be sincere, honest and caring.  They also seem to be reaching out more than my self-absorbed generation was capable of doing.  For example, young people are creating charitable organizations and taking care of their neighborhoods, not just their homes!  Just this morning I saw on the news, a story about a New York City police officer giving a pair of boots to a homeless man.  When the news anchor interviewed the police officer, I thought, “oh my goodness, that kid can’t be more than 22 years old!”

As cynical and jaded as our recent presidential election made all of us feel; we can turn right around and within our own families find a great hope for the future.  Our kids are not only walking forward into a future that we will never see; they are also making a future that we could only dream of.