Long Overdue
The Wall Street Journal has recently reported that nearly 40% of millennials (ages 18-33) are still living with their parents. That’s the highest percentage in 75 years. And it’s not for lack of education. The Pew Research Center finds that millennials (Bachelor’s Degrees are held by 27% of males and 21% of females) are the most highly educated generation in American history. So what gives?
Well, like many sweeping societal trends, there are likely to be multiple causes.
Although I’ve never seen it quantified anywhere, one does get the sneaking suspicion, when talking to millennials, that the level of motivation is not as high as it had been, certainly, with baby boomers, and not as high, even, as it was for gen-x’ers! One hears the term “slacker” used often, and with some justification. But that’s not the whole story. Some of the low levels of motivation may be a nihilistic reaction to diminishing prospects and opportunities, which, I feel, are the real cause of the problem.
Now, the diminishing opportunities has two sides to it. The first side is the spectacularly poor performance of our colleges and universities in preparing our youth for competitive and productive careers. By offering useless and witless majors like “Gender Studies” and “Inclusion Politics” and the like, our young men and women spend four years studying topics that don’t have a snowball’s chance in hell of opening doors in to meaningful and productive careers. Further, the laissez-faire teaching methods favored by today’s academics do a poor job of actually imparting the skills necessary to compete in today’s world of business and industry
But all of the above wouldn’t be so bad if conditions in “the trenches” weren’t so bad. Which brings me to the second side of diminishing opportunity: there are not enough jobs. Or at least, not enough good jobs. By that I mean jobs that not only pay well, but also match and utilize the education and inate talents of job seekers today. Not only are there not enough jobs, but the ones that do exist dramatically under employ our youth.
Now, the reasons for the dramatic shortage of jobs are, at least, two. First, of course, is the. recession that followed the Wall Street collapse of 2008. The second reason is the wrong headed policies of the Democratic Party going from 2008 up to about a minute ago. The dastardly duo of ever increasing taxes and ever increasing regulations made true recovery from the recession basically impossible. Since 2008 the US GDP growth rate has averaged LESS THAN 2%/year (source: Statista, 2016). During the same period, for example, India averaged OVER 5%. Furthermore, the economic environment was so poor, that big companies and big investors simply held on to their money fearing loss of capital if they foolishly tried to invest and expand. Much of what has held our country back for the past eight years is a direct result of the Democratic Party’s terrible decision making and terrible administration. So, it is the height of irony, that the young college students and young college grads overwhelmingly supported the Clinton/Sanders candidacies that promised….MORE OF THE SAME! They, apparently, just don’t get it. They, apparently, just don’t understand that their future depends on a strong and growing economy that will provide them with a prosperous and secure livelihood. They keep supporting foolish Democratic candidates and policies that will, in essence, cripple them. Will SOMEONE please clue them in? It’s long overdue.