1 in 7 Young Adults Neither Working Nor in School

Cross posted from Salon

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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Posted by Chuck Bell at 6:57 PM