Of course, part of this is due to a vicious cycle in regards to voting. More older people vote, so the governments listen more to the older folk. So younger people think that government and politics is 'irrelevant' to them and decide not to vote, so then in turn give the government less reason to listen to them.
More emphasis on local and state elections. Too many young people sit on their hands when it comes time to elect the people who actually write and propose laws, opting instead to check in only once every four years. Then, whenever the policies don't come in their favor, the disengage.
The article also seems to miss the student loan problem and how education costs are no longer paid by working a summer job and often take ten years into a career just to pay off.
But millennials also have access to a virtually unlimited amount of education for free right in their pocket because of the Internet.
Older generations didn't have that advantage.
College is but one route and only required in a few select licensed fields like medical doctors, patent attorneys, etc.
It amazes me that millennials are still going to college even when the costs are like 10x what it was for our parents. At some point the lost opportunity cost from all that debt outweighs any additional income they could earn from the degree.
You also need to factor in that someone has a 4-5 year head start if they just start working immediately and gain education in the field.
If you go the college route, there is 4 years, and another 4 years to pay off the debt. Contrast that to someone who works for a lower wage but can get into a home earlier. A home in Silicon Valley at $500K and 4% appreciation for 8 years comes out to $684 or $184K ahead than the college graduate who is now making maybe $15K more a year.
Also, someone with 4 years of actual work experience is not going to be that far off from someone with a college degree and no work experience.
After 10-15 years of working in a field nobody cares whether you have a degree or not and any income differences from college are now outweighed by personal talent and ambition.
A significant number of employers won't even consider a person for an interview unless they have that piece of paper with their degree on it from any given college.
Just to inject some data into the conversation, see the third graph on this page http://www.electproject.org/home/voter-turnout/demographics/. It indicates that the turnout rate for the 18-29 age group is at the lowest it's been since at least 1986 (this is as far back as the charted data goes). 18-29 is also the age group with the lowest participation, relative to other age cohorts. I think the charts were made using data found here: http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/socdemo/voting/
As I've said before, politicians respond to incentives just like everyone else. Don't expect them to give a crap about you if you don't give them a reason to give a crap about you.
I suspect this could be true.
A lot of my friends from Princeton and Upenn still don't have jobs, and its been a few years.
The ones that did well were engineering and finance degrees, and even then most were looking for jobs from around 3 months to a year.
I've also noticed their parents seem more desperate to support their families, some taking part-time jobs post retirement. The most extreme example I can think of is one friend's dad an engineer who couldn't get hired became a barber(in the midwest).
It really seems like a bad situation for everyone, like there aren't enough jobs for everyone.
Agreed. Various Waterloo and U of T friends here in Ontario are primarily underemployed, unless they move somewhere booming like SV. Lots of late 60s, early 70s people still banking up cash for retirement in technical roles that young people should (ideally) be training for.
8 comments
[ 2.9 ms ] story [ 26.5 ms ] threadNot sure what the solution is here.
http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2015/01/16/this-year-mi...
The article also seems to miss the student loan problem and how education costs are no longer paid by working a summer job and often take ten years into a career just to pay off.
Older generations didn't have that advantage.
College is but one route and only required in a few select licensed fields like medical doctors, patent attorneys, etc.
It amazes me that millennials are still going to college even when the costs are like 10x what it was for our parents. At some point the lost opportunity cost from all that debt outweighs any additional income they could earn from the degree.
You also need to factor in that someone has a 4-5 year head start if they just start working immediately and gain education in the field.
If you go the college route, there is 4 years, and another 4 years to pay off the debt. Contrast that to someone who works for a lower wage but can get into a home earlier. A home in Silicon Valley at $500K and 4% appreciation for 8 years comes out to $684 or $184K ahead than the college graduate who is now making maybe $15K more a year.
Also, someone with 4 years of actual work experience is not going to be that far off from someone with a college degree and no work experience.
After 10-15 years of working in a field nobody cares whether you have a degree or not and any income differences from college are now outweighed by personal talent and ambition.
As I've said before, politicians respond to incentives just like everyone else. Don't expect them to give a crap about you if you don't give them a reason to give a crap about you.
I've also noticed their parents seem more desperate to support their families, some taking part-time jobs post retirement. The most extreme example I can think of is one friend's dad an engineer who couldn't get hired became a barber(in the midwest). It really seems like a bad situation for everyone, like there aren't enough jobs for everyone.