The Screwed Generation
By Alan Caruba
June is famous for weddings and graduations. Both are filled with great expectations and both are subject to great disappointments.
Today’s college graduates are thoroughly screwed. According to Matthew Segal, the president of a non-profit membership organization called Our Time, “With 85% of college graduates moving back home and an average debt of $22,900 per student, thousands are staring at a bleak economic future.” You think?
Aren’t these the eager, besotted youngsters who, at age 18, voted for Barack Hussein Obama as if he were the Second Coming? In the words of Herman Cain, a GOP presidential contender, how did that work out?
“New college graduates,” said Segal, “are entering an economy with an almost 17% unemployment rate for Americans under the age of 30.” Despite that and other horrible statistics, Segal insists “We know there is still a bright future out there…” Oh, yeah? High unemployment. Having to move back home. Graduating with a huge debt. That’s not my definition of a bright future.
I graduated college in 1959. When I got out, what awaited all able-bodied young men was the Draft. Before I could think about utilizing my precious diploma, I had to get two years in the U.S. Army behind me and to my surprise it was some of the best post-graduate education one could imagine. And it was mandatory.
My “career” didn’t take off until I joined the staff of a weekly newspaper and, since the editor left within three months or so, I became the editor! Here again, the education I received was invaluable. All small towns and cities pretty much have to deal with the same political, educational, policing, and other issues.
I “graduated” to a daily newspaper and, after a few years concluded that there was no real money to be made. In this respect, I was way ahead of my time as the Internet would decimate newspaper circulations, decimate editorial staffs, and affect the writing craft to the point that rendered it a very bad career choice.
For those graduating from high school at age seventeen or eighteen this year, it means they were born in 1990 or 91. They were ten or eleven years old on September 11, 2001; just old enough to know that something terrible had happened, killing thousands of Americans who probably thought they were not at war with militant Islam. Since then, this generation has not known a day of peace.
For most young men, though, the option to avoid service—an all-volunteer military—had been made by Congress in 1973. So, Generation X, born 1965-1980, and Generation Y, born 1981 to 1995, and the current generation were largely spared serving in the military. You tend to pay closer attention to what is happening in the real world if it means you may have to fight a war. The miracle is that we have a million men and women in uniform who somehow absorbed the values of earlier generations.
A subject of growing contention is the way the nation’s educational system has been “dumbed down” since the 1960s or the growth of “political correctness” that thwarts addressing issues involving ethnicity, ancestry, religious faith, and gender. Nor is there much discussion of the way colleges and universities have become sausage factories squeezing parents and working students for every dollar, pushing them through, and conferring degrees that, with the exception of the professions, often have dubious value.
This new generation is very “connected” in ways earlier ones could never imagine. Facebook, MySpace, and all manner of other Internet machinery have transformed how they perceive themselves and the world. It has not, however, significantly educated them in the traditional sense of the word.
They will doff their caps and gowns and go home to mom and dad. A friend of mine graduated from Georgetown University in 1982 after working his way through. He recently calculated that it cost $232,000 to graduate today. What teenager could ever take on such a burden and why should their parents be expected to shell out the kind of money that could purchase a second home?
Today’s graduate is not likely to see any return on the money he or she pays into Social Security or Medicare. The dollars they earn will have diminished in value from those of my time or my friend’s.
It can be argued that it was no picnic for earlier generations, but they at least had a Constitution that wasn’t being ignored and dismembered.
They had, despite the occasional short-lived recession, a healthy economy, a rational national debt, and presidents who, with the exception of people like Lyndon Johnson, Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, and Barack Obama, didn’t see their job as plundering the public treasury for so-called “social justice” and environmental programs based on liberal pipedreams.
Welcome to the world of faltering economies from here to Greece and back again.
Welcome to outsourced jobs.
Welcome to rapacious bankers making money on housing loans they knew were bad for those in search of the American Dream.
Welcome to useless pat-downs every time you fly.
Welcome to “reality TV” and vulgar “entertainment”.
In these and so many other ways, this new generation is thoroughly screwed.
© Alan Caruba, 2011
June is famous for weddings and graduations. Both are filled with great expectations and both are subject to great disappointments.
Today’s college graduates are thoroughly screwed. According to Matthew Segal, the president of a non-profit membership organization called Our Time, “With 85% of college graduates moving back home and an average debt of $22,900 per student, thousands are staring at a bleak economic future.” You think?
Aren’t these the eager, besotted youngsters who, at age 18, voted for Barack Hussein Obama as if he were the Second Coming? In the words of Herman Cain, a GOP presidential contender, how did that work out?
“New college graduates,” said Segal, “are entering an economy with an almost 17% unemployment rate for Americans under the age of 30.” Despite that and other horrible statistics, Segal insists “We know there is still a bright future out there…” Oh, yeah? High unemployment. Having to move back home. Graduating with a huge debt. That’s not my definition of a bright future.
I graduated college in 1959. When I got out, what awaited all able-bodied young men was the Draft. Before I could think about utilizing my precious diploma, I had to get two years in the U.S. Army behind me and to my surprise it was some of the best post-graduate education one could imagine. And it was mandatory.
My “career” didn’t take off until I joined the staff of a weekly newspaper and, since the editor left within three months or so, I became the editor! Here again, the education I received was invaluable. All small towns and cities pretty much have to deal with the same political, educational, policing, and other issues.
I “graduated” to a daily newspaper and, after a few years concluded that there was no real money to be made. In this respect, I was way ahead of my time as the Internet would decimate newspaper circulations, decimate editorial staffs, and affect the writing craft to the point that rendered it a very bad career choice.
For those graduating from high school at age seventeen or eighteen this year, it means they were born in 1990 or 91. They were ten or eleven years old on September 11, 2001; just old enough to know that something terrible had happened, killing thousands of Americans who probably thought they were not at war with militant Islam. Since then, this generation has not known a day of peace.
For most young men, though, the option to avoid service—an all-volunteer military—had been made by Congress in 1973. So, Generation X, born 1965-1980, and Generation Y, born 1981 to 1995, and the current generation were largely spared serving in the military. You tend to pay closer attention to what is happening in the real world if it means you may have to fight a war. The miracle is that we have a million men and women in uniform who somehow absorbed the values of earlier generations.
A subject of growing contention is the way the nation’s educational system has been “dumbed down” since the 1960s or the growth of “political correctness” that thwarts addressing issues involving ethnicity, ancestry, religious faith, and gender. Nor is there much discussion of the way colleges and universities have become sausage factories squeezing parents and working students for every dollar, pushing them through, and conferring degrees that, with the exception of the professions, often have dubious value.
This new generation is very “connected” in ways earlier ones could never imagine. Facebook, MySpace, and all manner of other Internet machinery have transformed how they perceive themselves and the world. It has not, however, significantly educated them in the traditional sense of the word.
They will doff their caps and gowns and go home to mom and dad. A friend of mine graduated from Georgetown University in 1982 after working his way through. He recently calculated that it cost $232,000 to graduate today. What teenager could ever take on such a burden and why should their parents be expected to shell out the kind of money that could purchase a second home?
Today’s graduate is not likely to see any return on the money he or she pays into Social Security or Medicare. The dollars they earn will have diminished in value from those of my time or my friend’s.
It can be argued that it was no picnic for earlier generations, but they at least had a Constitution that wasn’t being ignored and dismembered.
They had, despite the occasional short-lived recession, a healthy economy, a rational national debt, and presidents who, with the exception of people like Lyndon Johnson, Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, and Barack Obama, didn’t see their job as plundering the public treasury for so-called “social justice” and environmental programs based on liberal pipedreams.
Welcome to the world of faltering economies from here to Greece and back again.
Welcome to outsourced jobs.
Welcome to rapacious bankers making money on housing loans they knew were bad for those in search of the American Dream.
Welcome to useless pat-downs every time you fly.
Welcome to “reality TV” and vulgar “entertainment”.
In these and so many other ways, this new generation is thoroughly screwed.
© Alan Caruba, 2011
Comment
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Comment by Pat Chadwell on May 13, 2011 at 11:23am -
Just read on a news post that Osama put out a call to hit Obama because he has broken his muslim faith which is what the kuran calls for.. Once a muslim always a muslim.... This was written in Osama`s logs....
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Comment by Phil on May 13, 2011 at 5:20am -
"But when a long train of abuses and usurpations,"
When is whenever. Like NOW!
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Comment by Riley Cook on May 12, 2011 at 10:35pm
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From the Declaration of Independence:
But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.
IF NOT US, THAN WHO??
R.R.
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Comment by DRSANGLE on May 12, 2011 at 9:10pm
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For those with all the great comments of wisdom, you have
have to go look at yourselves in the mirror to see how we
all got here.
DRSANGLE
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Comment by Pat Chadwell on May 12, 2011 at 5:52pm
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As we can all see Soros is giving instructions to the white house on how to turn America over an O thinks he will be Hitler with Soros standing next to him... But millions will die before that happens...
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Comment by Pat Chadwell on May 12, 2011 at 2:02pm
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Well Obama has 2 more acts with fire arms, so that he can make America unarmed, when it all comes down to more acts to kill America an have the MB take over when they would have arms an the American people would not. The socialist want to disarm the people so they can betaken over easyier....
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Comment by W. Michael King, Ph.D. on May 12, 2011 at 1:39pm -
History is replete with examples of how socialism fails, because it is corrupt when it starts. Ayn Rand's "We The Living" is a historical novel written in 1935 about "the start" of the Soviets. Christopher Andrew and Oleg Gordievsky gave us a major tome that traces the history from the Czars: "KGB."
Today, the police state in socialism will be rules and regulations, taxes and controls, that can deprive anyone of liberty and quality of life - and does by draining our life blood of work and intellect into mindless bureaucracies.
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Comment by Pat Chadwell on May 12, 2011 at 12:22pm
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An if you were a redical islamic muslim with a machetti in your hands you would looking to behead anyone that is not muslim... That is my experience back in late 50`s in the Phillippines... An they are doing it today in the Middle East, an the media will not cover it...
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Comment by W. Michael King, Ph.D. on May 12, 2011 at 12:10pm
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...."The only difference between socialism and communism is an AK-47 pointed at your head. That was my experience....."
Quang Nguyen, Immigrant from Viet Nam, speaking at a Freedom Rallye in Prescott Az, 24th July 2010.
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Comment by Andrew Freeman on May 12, 2011 at 7:26am -
Please. This entire (Federal Govrnment) mess can be straightened out primarily in a very short period of time. With proper leadership. It will take decades of work by conservatives in power to straighten out the details involved in this mess, through correct education covering acurate history, economics, and instilling right moral behavior in the minds of our young men and women, even from an early age. Pulling government involvement out of the school room, and turning the responsibility of education back to the parents and local communities is the only way to correct this situation. I am for school vouchers, and I believe competition in the education field is the absolutely best way to get a handle on this horrific situation. Please, I need your vote. Andrew Freeman, a capitalist, and a conservative on both social and economic issues. I can get this mess straightened oput in a very short time. I need your help. Conservatives must hold the line on the House of Representatives, and we must take control of the Senate. Elect fiscally responsible Constitutional Conservatives in 2012. We must increase the number of Conservative Constitutional Governorships, as well. Much can be done in a very short time, and I believe it will I can assure you, that if I am elected, I will re-set the Federal Government to it's proper position in all of our lives.
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