Will Millennials Be The Lost Generation?
By Thom Hartmann A...
The expectation for many Americans has always been that one generation will do better than those who came before them. But, that may not be the case when it comes to millennials.
According to a new report from Scott Stringer, the comptroller of New York City, millennials in the Big Apple make about 20 percent less than the previous generation. And, that statistic is the same or worse in many other parts of the country.
For all the hipster jokes and stereotypes we hear about millennials, people born between the early-80's and mid-90's have been stuck in low-wage jobs since the recession, and they may never be able to close that 20% gap.
Even those young people who managed to find a job in their chosen profession during the economic downturn were paid a lower starting salary than their predecessors, and their wages have remained pretty much stagnant since that time. And, many other millennials weren't fortunate enough to find a job in their chosen industry, despite their efforts.
In an interview with The Guardian Newspaper, Mr. Stringer said, “This generation is at a crossroads. They worked hard, got an education, and then faced roadblocks to getting a good-paying job.” He added, “It's time for us to pay attention to the largest generation in New York City, and start to break down those barriers.” And, New York City isn't the only place where those barriers need to come down.
People who worked hard and went to college should be able to earn a living wage, and they shouldn't be faced with a lifetime of struggling more than the previous generation. Millennials are now the largest generation, and we must do more to ensure that they are not simply a lost generation.
Comments
#2
Let me guess, it all started going downhill starting with Saint Raygun and his Repubtard friends. My father was one of the "greatest genreration". My brother and I were born in the 1930's and have had very successful careers as engineers. I attribute our success to our free college tuition in California and a thriving middle class. We were not poor but our father was one of the hated mail carriers and we would not have had the opportunity to go to college if there had been tuition. We lived at home through college and worked part time. My brother had the GI Bill and used it to go to graduate school, and I - having finished college before I was drafted - used my GI Bill to go to graduate school. We were also very fortunate to have been in the service just after the Korean War and just before the Vietnam War. Thanks to President Eisenhower.
#3
For Millenials and others to succeed, we will need changes to the underlying system. We need to find new ways to build community wealth. See:
Next System Project - http://thenextsystem.org/
Democracy Collaborative - http://democracycollaborative.org/
Community Wealth - http://community-wealth.org/.
Political Reform - https://represent.us/
#4
The two most damaging trends to 90% of Americans over the last five decades, are the exportation of jobs and cuts in education. The net effect of these depredations is to create a slave class of all Americans that are not part of the top 10% [who control 75% of all of America’s assets.]
Millenials, hopefully, will carve an exciting, antipodal path to the future and will bury past generations of inequality and intolerance deep enough so that they will not stink up the future for themselves and their progeny.
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For Christ's sake! I'm 43, born in 1972, and my generation is already way worse off than our parents!!! So millenials, are not the first generation of americans to be doing worse than their parents. My parents had a house, health insurance, single income family, stay at home mom, a labor union, vacation, and a pension)- all that on a blue collar salary. Many of us in our early fourties have none of that, many have just some of it, and almost no one has retirement. At least now people are starting to pay attention, but this is not a new phenomena.