The dead end kids.

The dead end kids.

The unemployment rate for young Americans has exploded to 52.2 percent -- a post-World War II high, according to the Labor Dept. -- meaning millions of Americans are staring at the likelihood that their lifetime earning potential will be diminished and, combined with the predicted slow economic recovery, their transition into productive members of society could be put on hold for an extended period of time.

And worse, without a clear economic recovery plan aimed at creating entry-level jobs, the odds of many of these young adults -- aged 16 to 24, excluding students -- getting a job and moving out of their parents' houses are long. Young workers have been among the hardest hit during the current recession -- in which a total of 9.5 million jobs have been lost.

If anyone is thinking this will sort itself out in a matter of months or a year, keep dreaming...

The impact of our present situation is only beginning.

In my view, there can be no greater destabilizing condition to a modern society than unemployable, idle youth. Eventually, they find something to do.....

Loam, once again, a good pertinent thread. S&F.



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[edit on 27-9-2009 by DontTreadOnMe]

It will backfire. And the parents and grandparents keep bugging them to 'get a job' when they don't realize, because of what is happening, WE CAN'T. Unless you have some personal connections into a business or corporation you're basically out of luck. College degree or not, the people will soon realize what it is they have to do.

They will have to learn most peoples god is money.
This will all backfire if people start thinking realistically about survival and becoming self reliant while not obeying the higher influential misguidance of the system.

All it takes is a change of action. If all employed people stop going to work tomorrow there would be a change.

Stop looking to your misguided leaders who misguide you. Because they are not true leaders. They are followers leading you to your self destructive demise.

If you can't lead yourself, find someone who has solution with direction.

[edit on 27-9-2009 by jvm222]

reply to post by jvm222


Either that or your only choice will be to work at McDonalds for the rest of your life.

The system no longer works and needs a replacement or complete overhaul

Although seen from a Portuguese point of view, I think that is similar to what happened in the UK and that was the source of the "No future" slogan and the Punk movement, so we can look at what happened then to get an idea of what could happen now, although the situation is not the same.

They can stay at their parent's home (If they even have a home) and cry about their condition, or they can go out there, buddy up with people in similar predicaments, seize some land and shoot anybody that tries to kick them out of their seized land, grow their own food, run their own community laws, and put the future back into their own hands...

Or they can just stay where they are like good sheeple...

Their choice... The powers that be don't care to move them along, only to hold them back...

Their choice.

reply to post by loam


I agree, how totally sad. To work and provide a living for yourself goes hand in hand with self respect. To loose self respect at such a young age has powerful implications. Nice thread!

No one i'm friends with is unemployed, including me... 'n we all fall into that age group. Strange, huh? Go $10+ jobs for all!

i work for free. Volanteer at a place in the hope i get enough experiance to actually get a job in the field I want to go for. I can hope...

I know that these current times effect everybody to a different level of degree but as far as the area that I live in, we can't get any menial labor help to even show up for work. Our local fast food resturants(ie-Taco Bell)
have had to close their doors and only keep the drive-thru open due to nobody showing up to work. Other places of buisnesses that open up in this area are short lived because they can't find any help.
We have two 'temporary work' services in the area which I surely didn't think would be able to thrive since there was so much need for full time employment in the area but they did due to the reason that I concider to be sheer laziness! I came to find out that the people that use these services for employment only do so because they can get paid daily and work whenever their heart desires.
-Here's an article on our schooling systems contributing to the fact
www.economist.com...

-I love this lady's idea and reasoning
www.redding.com...

Thirty-six years have passed and America has asked nothing of the 18- to 24-year-old crowd. Home life has changed, too. Very few children are required anymore to roll up their sleeves and apply elbow grease for the benefit of the family. Parents are busy, kids are overscheduled, many eat what they want, go to bed when they please, and most don't know the first thing about handling tools, preparing a meal, even running a vacuum cleaner. We have become a nation of largely apathetic, mostly overweight youth who have few skills beyond running personal electronic devices.

-I also love the term 'mini couch potatoes' in this one
www.dailymail.co.uk...

Scientists claim there is an epidemic of 'mini-couch potatoes' at risk of chronic health problems in later life.

-And last but not least, a kid's point of view
www.theonion.com...

Hello, reader! I am a young boy from the United States, and like most other American children such as me, it seems there is nothing I enjoy more than lazing about from morning until night, eating sweets, and wantonly disrespecting the wishes of my elders.

I don't feel that we have a problem with youth unemployment as we have a problem with youth work ethics. No matter how technology advanced our society gets, there will always be the need for menial labor.
The work is there, well at least in my neck of the woods.

reply to post by geo1066


An interesting point, but I suspect at the local levels its better in some places and much worse in others.

Overall, the percentage as a national average is disturbing, nonetheless.

[edit on 27-9-2009 by loam]

I think it's very stupid to lay off young people! What happens when all the seniors retire?

UH OH no more workers

jobs have been bad here in Oregon for all ages i see people with family's on the street holding signs bagging for money heck at my nearest McDonald's its all older people 50+ ive seen young adults walk in and ask for for work and be turned down even trying to get resumes and they get told sorry its bad ware we live we moved to a cheaper area to live but theirs no work all taken by people who have lived there all of there life's

I couldn't disagree more with this. Yes that may be the data, but there are SOOOO many entry level jobs, at least in my area, available that I don't know how anyone DOESN'T have a job. It all comes down to the

1. Laziness of young Americans
2. The unwillingness of them to work a job they think is BELOW them and
3. Well 1 and 2 were sufficient enough for me.

Illegal Immigrants are thriving in my area, I truly believe the "they took our jobs" crap is just that and if you want a damn job you will work whatever is available.

I live in Idaho by the way, just for reference. And I am 29 so I am a young American who has a felony, but still manages to keep a job that pays me over 45K a year (plenty of money in Idaho). I work in food production and I can not believe the whining and pickiness of some of the people we hire. Things like "12 hours is too long to work", "I can't do overtime", "I can't work nights", and we start out 70% of our employees at $15.00 plus an hour!!!

Unbelievable, yet our plant is full of Mexicans, many are believed to be illegal ready to work.

So 52% unemployment rate should be divided by 5 and that is the real rate compared to the laziness rate.


[edit on (9/27/09) by gnosis111]

Originally posted by warrenb
reply to post by jvm222

 

Either that or your only choice will be to work at McDonalds for the rest of your life.

The system no longer works and needs a replacement or complete overhaul

only problem with that is what happens what all the fast-food places run out of the need for new employment? at a certain point even McDonald's will seem like an unattainable dream for our youth if our system keeps crumbling at its current pace.

Despite localized anecdotes, the fact that it is this high means people of that age are reporting themselves as unemployed, meaning they would take a job if they could find it.

Oddly, this demographic, 16-24, is the overwhelming number of people on minimum wage.

www.heritage.org...

Of course, I am sure there is no connection between these two facts. Aside from the obvious that we are in a semi-permanent state of 10% (really 15%) unemployment.

[edit on 27-9-2009 by Pabama]

I fall in that age bracket and I am quite disgusted with the tone projected at that age group. Firstly I live in a town that is sprawled out across a long beach and is disconnected by one main highway. This makes it impossible to bike ride to work or simpler means, unless of course if you want to risk getting hit on the highway. In order to get a job I must have a car. In order to have a car I must afford insurance. If I want to get a loan on a car I have to get full coverage which is rediculously priced. So what you see is a conundrum on how to get a job.
However, I speak for some of my age group when I say that most of us detest and despise the system laid out for us. Most people accept the world they are brought into but it seems many of this age group are intelligent enough to look beyond the mechanical system. The societal organism as a whole doesnt need young men to do hard work for incredibly cheap pay, they found an even cheaper substitute.
I reached a point, which I knew I would inevitibly reach, where I wish to no longer participate in the societal organism. The government acts as a parental figure in which, If living under their "house", one must follow their rules in order to sustain oneself. This is rediculous, the last thing they want you to be able to do is self subsistence. Well in my attempt of defeating the societal organism, I am learning to provide for myself in ways completely avoiding the societal organism.
Agreeing with the person that said we should just hijack our own land and create our own society, well this is bound to happen whether it stays amongst the age bracket or effects all living in the system.
My ancestors had no problem living in harmony with nature and I intend to do the same. I do not need 4 years of college to end up grinding my life away for money. I will enjoy my life under simpler means, and all the while, spiritually advancing my self and hopefully more will join, and soon enough we can take a hold of our own destiny as a species and take back what is rightfully ours, the right to live happily and freely off the land that NO ONE owns, and no one has the right to say how and in what way I can choose to live.

I look at the system and see a barbaric system of ownership, and just like the natives, I cannot comprehend why the white men fence in the land, its not their's to say "MINE." It is this idea of ownership that is the foundation of our system, and it's flawed to say the least. The evolution of man has been put on hold for greedy people. So next time you think to yourself, "man I need a job," think about how you could live happily without one.

A true utopia is one without money and greed and one in which everyone provides for themselves with enough to give back to community. Many anti-capitalist rave about kicking the monetary system and all sorts of things, but not many actually envision the next system without money. Community is important but not if it perpetuates self enslavement, community, or a new societal organism, must be worked from the ground up. Starting with all learning to provide for themselves, and then to provide for the community.
[edit on 27-9-2009 by grayhawkz1]

[edit on 27-9-2009 by grayhawkz1]

Possibly, but I think there will be a lot of baby boomers hitting the retirement age soon. Maybe that combined with the fact that a good amount of people opted to go back to school rather than look for a new job when the slump first set in. This may leave a window of opportunity for some of these dead end kids to find employment... only if they will take it instead of let it pass by and opt out to just be lazy american kids.

reply to post by geo1066


We have both a problem with unemployment and apathetic lazy kids. I got my BA in May and am still stuck at my crappy job at CVS making less than $10...We have had a hundred+ applications turned in but haven't been hiring in months. If/when we do hire one of these younger people, usually 21 or under, they immediately want weekends off, don't want to close, and just want to txt on their cell phone and read magazines while on register. Ask them to do something, such as stocking the beer box/coolers and they do a 5minute piss poor job and think they are owed a reward.
They don't understand the concept of hard work, seniority in the working environment, and that everyone is expected to give 100% effort...they also don't understand that most older customers view a cashier standing there with their cell phone out as unprofessional and even a little rude.

I've been thinking about getting my masters in education and becoming a teacher but oh no, the economy is so bad I may not get a loan...and my state is so broke they're cutting back on programs and many schools are actually laying off teachers...what a time to be alive...

Will there be another Punk era? Grunge? Maybe techno/trance will become the new hit...doubt that, so who want's to start a rock band?