1 in 7 Young Adults Neither Working Nor in School
Cross posted from Salon
Millennials are hopeless, and it’s all our fault
Millennials are hopeless, and it’s all our fault
Jobs are vanishing for young Americans, thanks to a
narcissistic national politics that's disconnected from reality
ROBERT
HENNELLY - MONDAY, AUG 5, 2013\
"...[H]ere in the U.S. there are signs of a growing
class of young people on their way to being sidelined. This wound appears
self-inflicted by a narcissistic national politics totally disconnected from
the current social conditions of people outside the Beltway.
According to the Social Science Research Council’s report,
“A Measure of America Study,” an “astonishing one in seven Americans ages
16 to 24 is neither working nor in school — 5.8 million young people in all.” The
authors rightly point out that such idleness has long-erm impacts for our
nation. As their plugged-in peers ascend the ladder of success with that first
job, these “disconnected youth find themselves adrift at society’s margins
unmoored from the structures that confer knowledge, skills, identity and
purpose.”
How ironic. Even as we fret most furiously about the lack of
a sufficient workforce to carry us baby boomers into our “golden years,” we
fail to see that we are squandering the generation we are counting on to carry
the load.
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