Ed at ginandtacos walks through the horror of trend stories about happy, young, unpaid interns on-the-go in Interns Built the Pyramids. Anyone who works with young people is aware of the lack of jobs and opportunities, from the most disadvantaged through those who leave college with fresh skills. The lucky end up in non-paying internships, a nice little inequality generating machine for the 21st century.
If you wonder why people are so worried about the current unemployment crisis, look at these two statistics of the employment-population ratio rate of young people in the United States:
A 10% drop in the amount of young people working as a result of this recession. That’s 10% more people detached from the labor market and with decades of lost wages. That’s 10% more people with fewer opportunities to develop their capabilities and build the American economy over the 21st century. And that is a generational crisis unless we get a serious attempt to fix this economy and put people to work.
Rortybomb 
Yes, the young are suffering so, and to some extent it seems that the older generation is adding to their pain. For example older Americans on SS and Medicare are preferentially voting Repub and dooming the younger ones to a diminished retirement. Undoubtably our top 1 percenters skew older, and every time they get a tax break the rest of us have to pay a bit more to keep the lights on. And then we have the older, management types sending the jobs typically held by the younger workers overseas.
It is so unpatriotic. So painful to watch.
Well, we each have one vote. The trick is to mobilize the young.
We’re in a heap of trouble no matter what. Never good to generalize, its your POV.. Theres lots oldsters who are not doing well, many are unemployed, part of the 99er’s and who do care about the young. We need to connect and get educated and thats where the tricky part is. This is a big country and we are up against seen and unseen forces.
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You have no choice but to accept that bc of globalization, someone in the world will do your job for a bowl of rice a day leaving today’s youngins with no job at all.
You can thank your corporate overlords who shipped your jobs overseas looking to save a buck.
If you are over 50 and lose a job you are screwed too. The arteries of American social mobility are hardening every year. Kids graduating from Harvard are fine, theyll get their jobs in finance or go to law school. Kids graduating from the University of Oregon, not so much.
Whatever happened to all of those baby-boomers that were suppose to be retiring?
More proof that we are “turning Japanese.”
America is cannibalizing their young. After 40 years of towing the Party line, i’d be surprised otherwise. how long before Americans wake up? The young are just one group thrown overboard in the PR party line. Do we have to wait for these stupid people to die before Americans can “take America back.”
god, how i love to stupidity of such “slogans.”
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This country is f*cked. Time to move to Canada.
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