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Edited on Tue Feb-02-10 06:23 PM by SoCalDem
This is the biggest "challenge" we are facing, as a society.
Many of us grew up in a time when people did things in a very proscribed manner. There were "rules".
Young people had their schooling & then their apprenticeships, and the "reward" for their diligence was a career, and a stable lifestyle.
They may not have wanted to replicate their elders' lives , but they at least wanted the opportunity to have a lifestyle at least as good as their parents'.
Parents let their children know that , at first, they would have to skimp & struggle a bit, but the payoff would be a comfortable life.
All bets are off now, and have been off for a very long time.
Students "graduate" with an unmanageable load of debt, into a marketplace that does not value their education, and sees them as low-paid wage-slaves, eager to do anything for any paycheck.
Saving is not even an option for most young people starting out today. If part-time work is all that many can even find, or some combination of internship/paid work is the other option, they won't even make enough to support themselves.
Many experts comment on how so many young people do not marry as young as in previous times. In some ways, I see this as a self-preservation reflex. "25 yr old woman, with $40K school debt, marries 27 yr old man, with $50K school debt"... How many people here think that's a marriage "made in heaven"?
Young people in that predicament may never be able to maintain the creditworthiness necessary to buy a home, or afford a family, or even a good loan rate for the cars they would need to get from job to job.
No matter how far we have come, we still see our own debt as a bit shameful..as something we don't really want to share with others. It's got to be a daunting thing to be dating someone, and to fall in love with them,. and then to have to have "that talk"... you know.. the "talk" where you tell them how much money you owe, and how broke you really are..
I had a friend who said that the way you could tell if it was "true love" was when you could throw up in front of that "other" person, and they would not be grossed out. I think the modern version might be , when you tell them how in debt you are, and they do not run for the hills, never to be seen again..
But having said that, love will not "cure" debt....but debt can (and will) kill love.
Even people who manage to find full-time work...work that pays well.. can never be comfortable, since every day there is news about companies being bought and sold and jobs being eliminated. Everyone goes to work with a sense of dread, every time a few people go into an office and close the door, a chill falls over the office.
People who thought they had careers, are finding out that they are 40-something, and unemployed...and possibly forever (in their former line of work).
Humans are inventive creatures, but we are being asked to re-invent ourselves multiple times, all-the-while trying to manage lives & raise families. This calls into question the whole purpose of a higher education. Why waste time and money to get a degree in something if the "payoff" will only last a while, and then you will be expected to start all over?
18-25 yr olds may be in a position to go in many directions at once until they find their true calling, but it's really unfair to ask people to do this over and over and over and over.
Daily living costs are pretty much fixed for most people. There are basics that have to be paid for: rent/mortgage...food...transportation to and from work..clothes on your back...shoes on your feet..seeing a doctor when you're sick..
If you cannot find full-time work that provides enough money for the basics of life, how can you even begin to manage on part time jobs?
I know there are millions of people who are doing this (or trying to), but falling further behind, month after month, is no way to live....not for the long haul anyway.
The public has lost faith, because too many of us lived by the rules..we played fairly, we did our part, and every time we thought it was about to "pay off", the rules were either re-written, or simply thrown away.. We keep passing "GO", but the "Collect $200" part is not enough.
Even now that there is a plan to help small businesses borrow money for "new hires".. Well that's just ducky, BUT what about re-hiring all the people laid off BEFORE those "new-hires"?
And if a small business hires/re-hires? ...then what?
Demand drives the economy. If there is no demand, making more "stuff", will not solve the problem..
Stuff is a big part of our problem. Money spent for "stuff" is used to pay low wages to the people who stack & sell the "stuff", and to the operators of the big-box corporations, but the lion's share of the money spent does not recirculate within the communities where it's spent. The only money that circulates, is the wages made by the people who live there...and if they spend their money for "stuff" at other big-boxes..well the law of diminishing returns comes into play pretty quickly.
A society of part-time workers selling foreign-made "stuff" to other part-time workers is no way to run a vibrant economy...especially when houses cost "full-time" money..so do cars & washers & dryers & dishwashers & college costs "full-time" money too...so do medical care premiums.
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