I find myself seriously considering not encouraging my children to attend college without a very clear plan and goal (barring scholarships).
I honestly think the student loan industry is a major barrier to economic growth and innovation - individually and as a society. When people finish college they should be most able to take risks, try new things, start companies - whatever. Instead they are under massive debt and must get, and keep, the first job they can find. There is no room for risk. It’s a fucking trap that screws people over on a massive scale.
Here in Canada it isn’t quite so bad - our tuitions are high but not stupid in the way US tuitions have become.
On the other side of that argument is the simple fact that a lot of the time spent in college is a complete waste of time for many of the students. Young people are told by the rest of us that they must go to college to succeed in life, but many who do have no idea why they are there or what to do while they are there - so they get a degree in whatever and a big pile of debt to shackle them for life. What a scam.
A lot of them were eager to vote, oddly for a crabby old pinko grandpa in his 70s who at least had the decency to be honest and tell the youngsters that they were legit screwed and some serious changes had to be made. But a corrupt party was having none of that, so here they are with yet another establishment Dem Boomer telling them that everything’s going to be OK if they trust her to conduct to business as usual.
That’s not to say they shouldn’t vote*, just that we can’t expect a lot of enthusiasm from them given the choices presented. “She’s not a crazed narcissistic grifter and she’ll nominate SCOTUS justices who are decent when it comes to social issues” isn’t a slogan that’s going to get the kids revved up.
[* Please vote. For Clinton. Especially if you’re in a swing or battleground state.]
Parents who are often dealing with elderly and ill parents of their own. In a society and economy that hasn’t been geared toward multi-generational households for a century.
It’s been a long time since I was young. But when I was young, I fit that list pretty closely (except for student debt, I could see that burden coming from years away). After years of hard work and responsible scrimping and saving I can safely say that Millennials are indeed legit screwed.
I was always dismayed that none of the millennials I’ve known (admittedly not many) had part time jobs in high school. Maybe that’s not as easy today as it was for me but I feel like getting into the rhythm of the workplace as soon as possible (I started at 15) is invaluable. Maybe it won’t address all of those issues (college debt…yikes) but it certainly gives you useful skills to fall back on.
You’re right about the skills and experience. However, lots of American adults now have to subsist on one or more part-time jobs (because full-time jobs involve the corporation handing out “luxuries” like health benefits and retirement plans). Throw in the fact that those adult workers are frequently overqualified and/or old folks forced to stay in the labour market post-crash and the result is that part-time jobs for teenagers are thinner on the ground these days.
Was it Mitt Romney who in a media interview said something like
“When I was in high school, I worked at the burger shack. I made a nickle an hour and that was enough for me to buy a car and keep it in gas and oil, and I have no idea what he young kids are complaining about! These part-time jobs aren’t meant for adults anyway.”
You may be right, though i’ve known quite a number of people who also spent a lot of time volunteering and/or doing extra-curricular activities that gave them really good experience that they could take on for life after high school. I grew up outside of the US and without having to go too much into it, the opportunity to work in high school was unfeasible. But i do wish i could have because i could’ve used the experience to make my life easier when i was on my own.
How many 15 year olds can get to a job without an adult to drive them? How many can earn enough even at 17 from a part time job to be able to afford the car, gas, and insurance to be able to drive themselves to work? For how many would doing so keep them from meeting academic expectations and other requirements for getting into a good college, without which they are even more screwed?
I’m 29. I had it easy growing up by any measure you care to name, I finished at the top of my high school class and got bachelor’s and master’s degrees from top schools debt-free, and at that end of it I came out in a place that would have been considered average middle class 30 years ago (homeowner, recently married, one shared car for me and my wife). I see what my friends go through, though, and the general perception of blameless screwedness is accurate.
the thing is, at this point, voting for the Dem Boomer and then holding her feet to the fires of change is the ONLY way things are going to improve. because the other way, things are guaranteed to get worse.
Mine’s flat-out refused to get into debt for student loans. Her arguments, while tinged with the nihilism of youth, are pretty fucking cogent. It’s a shame, because she’s scary bright, but that’s why her arguments are so cogent. I’m not at all fond of the distribution of the future. Not at all.
