As promised yesterday, I am going to write about the USA's current economic and political climate and how our futures are being affected by today's issues. (This is kind of a long post, but it contains important information for all young persons).
It is no secret that it is difficult for many Americans to find jobs today. After all, the overall unemployment rate is 8.8%. However, the employment situation is much worse for young people. About 15% of us between the ages of 20 and 24 do not have jobs. Additionally, approximately 9.1% of people between 25 and 34 are unemployed. Finally, 24.5% of working-age teenagers have no job (part-time or otherwise). (To see general unemployment statistics, feel free to visit this website: http://bls.gov/news.release/pdf/empsit.pdf).
Being unemployed is not the only economic problem young Americans are facing. The average college graduate in 2009 left school with $24,000 in student loan debt. And that figure is likely to go up, given the fact that tuition is increasing 3 times faster than the rate of inflation and government grants, loans and scholarships are most likely going to shrink due to federal budget cuts.
It gets better (sarcasm).
President Obama gave a speech at George Washington University today in order to discuss his plans to decrease the federal deficit by a total of $4 trillion over the next 12 years. Some of his ideas are good (especially those involving tax reform and cuts to unnecessary programs). Other ideas are troubling.
The most troubling of Obama's proposals is the "debt failsafe" that would start in 2014. This program will make large cuts across the federal government's budget, provided the federal deficit situation has not improved (I have no idea who gets to decide whether or not the debt situation has improved). While that sounds like a good idea, there is a catch (as always): these cuts would not apply to Social Security, Medicare, and certain unlisted low-income programs.
Why is this a problem, you ask? Well, this debt failsafe would cut funding for many education initiatives (I am talking about loans, scholarships, and grants) soon-to-be college students will depend on. The most troubling aspect about this program, though, is that while young people's education funding is being slashed, older Americans and retirees will not share our pain.
And here is some more good news (that is more sarcasm, if you could not tell). Starting this year, the first of the Baby Boomer generation (a generation consisting of roughly 77 million people) will be retiring, and, therefore, collecting Social Security and Medicare benefits. For those who do not already know, Social Security and Medicare are already cash-strapped programs: according to Congressional Budget Office estimates (CBO), Social Security will be bankrupt by 2042 at the latest. So, those programs will go bankrupt just around the time we will be retiring; in other words, we will pay most of our working lives into those programs to support others, but we will probably not be able to enjoy the same retirement benefits the generations that came before us did. Does that sound like an agreeable arrangement to you?
The real question I have is this: Why are we young people expected to accept this arrangement? In essence, I believe the reason is politics. Current and soon-to-be retirees are a very large and politically active subset of the American population. In order for elected officials to maintain their offices, they have to appeal to these voters. And the best way for officials to do that is to pass resolutions that benefit those active voters.
To recap, the previous generations want us to deal with fewer programs to help us afford college (even though we need to go to college to compete in the globalized economy), accept higher Social Security burdens to fund the Baby Boomers' retirement (even though we will likely not benefit from those programs when we retire) and agree to inevitable, higher future tax rates to help pay off the nation's $15 trillion debt (a debt that we did not incur). And we are supposed to do this while we are paying off student loans, contributing to our own retirement plans, improving America's standing in the foreign community, and raising children. These messes are being passed down to us by our leaders and elders because of politics. We can do something about this, but we young people need to work together.
At the end of the day, I have decided that enough is enough. I want a new deal. And I am pretty sure you do, too.
Until tomorrow,
BB
EAYNUF Founder
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