10 Reasons Millennials Are the Screwed Generation

[xchrom]

http://www.alternet.org/corporate-accountability-and-workplace/10-reasons-millennials-are-screwed-generation



***SNIP

1. A dying middle class.

Many Baby Boomers and members of the Silent Generation (essentially the younger end of the World War II generation) entered the workforce at a time when there were still plenty of good-paying jobs in the United States. In the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, a college degree practically guaranteed a job that paid a living wage, and for blue-collar workers who went to trade school, high-paying unionized jobs were not hard to come by. Gen X, however, confronted some harsh realities during the recession of the early 1990s, when many college graduates found themselves in dead-end service jobs (which was unheard of in the 1950s and 1960s). But the American economy boomed considerably in the mid- to late-1990s, and many Gen-Xers who had struggled in the early 1990s went on to prosper as the 1990s progressed (especially during Bill Clinton’s second term as president). Millennials, however, were unable to take advantage of that Clinton-era prosperity, and they entered the workforce at a time when the American middle class was in danger of extinction. Many Boomers and X-ers have had their savings depleted by the economic downturn of the late 2000s and early 2010; many Millennials haven’t even had a chance to build a substantial savings.

2. The financial crash of Sept. 2008.

The United States’ financial problems didn’t begin with the crash of September 2008. American manufacturing jobs were being exported to developing countries long before that, and the North American Free Trade Agreement of the early 1990s proved to be every bit as damaging as Ross Perot predicted it would be. But the crash of 2008 greatly accelerated the U.S.’ decline, and five years later, millions of Americans continue to suffer. The number of Americans who were poor enough to qualify for food stamps was just over 17 million in 2000; in 2013, it’s 47 million. Misleading Bureau of Labor Statistics figures claim that the unemployment rate in the U.S. fell to 7.4% in July 2013, but that figure excludes all the Americans who have been unemployed for so long the BLS no longer counts them as part of the workforce. In this abysmal job climate, Millennials have a hard time building a résumé because they are competing with desperate Gen-Xers and Boomers who have decided that being underemployed is better than being unemployed and are willing to dumb down their résumés in the hope of finding steady, if inadequate, income.

3. Crushing student loan debt.

Millennials are graduating from high school at a time when there is a serious shortage of both good, unionized blue-collar jobs and a shortage of good, white-collar jobs. The America of the 1950s, when a blue-collar male could have a mortgage and support a wife and two kids, is a world Millennials have never known. And if Millennials go the college route in 2013, they can look forward to tuition rates that are more unaffordable than ever. But an expensive college degree won’t necessarily result in a high-paying job. Plenty of Millennials with BAs and even masters degrees, are making minimum wage in dollar stores, and minimum wage is hardly conducive to paying back a huge student loan debt. Some Millennials, inevitably, will be late making their student loan payments, thus hurting their credit scores and placing them even more behind the eight ball.

4. The broken healthcare system.

Millennials certainly wasn't the first generation of Americans to be victimized by the U.S.’ dysfunctional health insurance system. But a system that was broken in the 1980s and 1990s has gone from bad to worse: premiums have skyrocketed, medical bankruptcies are common even among those who have insurance, and the number of uninsured Americans has continued to rise (according to a study that the Commonwealth Fund conducted in 2012, 55 million Americans were without health insurance at some point last year). To make matters worse, Millennials are likely to be in low-paying service jobs that don’t offer any benefits whatsoever. And while the Affordable Care Act of 2010 is a small step in the direction of universal healthcare, it doesn’t go nearly far enough. (Robert Reich, former secretary of labor under the Clinton administration, complains that Obamacare “still leaves 20 million Americans without coverage.”)

[ThirdWayCowplop]

1. Millennials are only screwed if they remain in the USA

If they GTF out now while young they have a chance at a better life.

The millennials who do remain are screwed.

[newfie11]

3. +infinity

I tell this to my grand kids often!

[whttevrr]

7. Or... if they don't vote!

The real problem is people in this country of every generation wait too long to wake up and pay attention to what is going on. If more people took the time to read and search out answers, we would be much better off when we go to vote.

Nonprofitvote.org reports that only 57.4% of the electorate turned out to vote in 2012.

Voters need to vote.

[Arugula Latte]

8. Yep. I'm hinting at this with my own kids, even though I'd love them to stay by me forever.

[NuclearDem]

10. I know things really suck for Millenials (I'm 24 and still can't find work)

But we need as many people here to fight as possible. The more people simply jump ship, the fewer the people we have to fight the corporatists and fascists.

[NuclearDem]

18. Not necessarily fight for any ideal. American exceptionalism and the American dream are myths.

But things will get worse down the road, and there are millions of people here who don't have the luxury of uprooting and emigrating. If anything, just fight to make all our lives a little less miserable.

I know that's not much of a cause, but it's really all that's left at this point.

[Eleanors38]

13. Or re-visit another union movement & all that it entails.

[B Calm]

2. Many of us baby boomers lost our high paying jobs during the Reagan era,

along with our pensions etc etc that our parents enjoyed.

[diane in sf]

4. The job market died in 1973 and didn't come back until the 80s. Many boomers

who left school at that time lost around 10 years of income compared to people 10 years older and 10 years younger than them.

[Eleanors38]

11. Good point. This applies to degreed folks as well,

and I felt the cold during this time; hit & miss temp jobs, clerical, Manpower. Only when I called on my high school mechanic courses, and set up my own mobile auto repair biz did I start making up for lost income. Bought a house when prices were low and watched it increase in value 8X. Business fell off, did some free-lance writing, more temp work, till I was "aged out" of that, too, then took SS early. Once you lose those years, you are on your own for income.

[Laelth]

5. k&r for the truth, however depressing it may be. n/t

-Laelth

[Wilms]

6. ^

[Arugula Latte]

9. Was having a conversation yesterday with another so-called "middle class" friend.

We were saying that 20 or 30 years ago there would have been no question that our kids would've attended a four-year college, albeit an "inexpensive" public one. Now we just can't see a path to four years. Even community college + two years of university seems completely daunting, when you need multi-tens of thousands of dollars just to get a BA degree at a brick & mortar place.

What has happened to this country in just my (hopefully only half-completed) lifetime?

[KurtNYC]

12. 5 Reasons they AREN'T

1. Universal healthcare on the horizon. ACA is the first step toward bringing the USA's healthcare system in line with the rest of the first world. Millennials may be the first generation to enjoy the benefits both health wise and economic, of having a single payer system.

2. Spirituality on the rise. Not religion but a new focus on spiritual satisfaction. The idea that money solves all problems or automatically creates happiness is being replaced -- money and material possessions are no guarantee of happiness. Finding spiritual satisfaction may yet be elusive but at least we are looking in the right direction.

3. More interconnected than any prior generation. Instant and on going contact with friends, family and experts on a level not imagined by prior generations. Huge reduction in isolation, loneliness and more emphasis on interdependence.

4. They are living in the Golden Age of Food. Food is cheaper and more varied than at any time in recorded history. Food is entertainment and culture now. We are returning to food as a source of social interaction. Access to the favorite foods of other cultures and countries has never been easier and the exchange underlines the oneness of Man.

5. World Wars are over. It has been 70 years. The Cold War ended. The rattling of nuclear sabres has ceased and the prospect of a 3rd World War seems less likely year by year. The shift in psyche alone is healthy. Healthier than teaching grade schoolers to "duck and cover" and building bomb shelters in the backyards of suburban homes.

[TheKentuckian]

14. A few years of economic bubble fresh out of college, preceded and followed by garbage

isn't some big boon for Xers, at least we could get an entry level position and meager pay but shit went topsy turvy quick and has stayed that way. Y, I'd say got no advantage at all (no hay from the bubble at all), and even the late boomers are mostly screwed and have spent there entire lives in or recovering from recession.

I think this is just another whitewash of the pre-Bush economic environment. Probably not on purpose but it still spends the same. Bush II accelerated but the path was set and the damage done would not even be possible without the foundations laid over the preceding thirty years.

Blaming Bush is weak, lazy, and dishonest triage that I believe is done to steer away from fundamental systemic changes that are actually required. A back door way to prop up the very conditions Bush came up from to rationalize more Voodoo Economics.

[Demo_Chris]

15. well said. nt

[eridani]

17. Of my four nephews, only one has a real job

Three have college degrees, luckily without too much indebtedness, and the fourth has some college. The environmental engineer with a real job has just become a father--he's the only one of the four that can afford to support a kid. His wife can afford a few years off at home, a very rare thing these days.

Another is employed in special education, and always having programs and hours being cut and income utterly unpredictable His wife has a minimum wage job.

Another has a degree in Middle Eastern Studies and has some fluency in Persian. He is scrubbing motel toilets, and finding that his job is not exactly attractive to prospective dates. He's thinking of travelling abroad doing the teach ESL thing, and maybe finding someplace else to live. I noticed that this option has been mentioned in responses.

The last is working as an assistant pizza cook, and not sure what he would want to major in if he went back to school. Further professional training as a cook is a possibility, but he barely makes enough to live on with irregular hours.

It was nowhere near like this when I graduated in 1968, and I never cease to be shocked by the deterioration.