youth

Worse Off Than Their Parents

Natasha Chart — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 14:33:23 -0400

Parents usually want their children to have a better life than they did. In the United States, the parents of today's under-30 crowd may be disappointed in that hope.

Throughout last year, they were far more likely than other age groups to have reported unemployment in their households. Labor force participation for those ages 16-24 has decreased to its lowest levels since WWII as a Pew report on the graying work force notes that the recession has tilted the job market towards older workers and those with degrees.

The Pew report also says that nearly a third of the public has come to believe that a degree is necessary to get a good job, whereas 30 years ago, just under half believed that. As former President Clinton pointed out last week at a a press event, the cost of a degree has tripled in recent decades, entirely wiping out the benefits of every government assistance program for college costs.

Those college costs are usually financed instead by loans which are currently not eligible for bankruptcy protection. Loan repayment therefore eats up larger percentages of future earnings which have been plummeting for 8 years for those under 55. Bad timing for anyone who's taken out student loans in recent years in the hopes that the job market would catch up to their education expenditures, and worse luck if their parents' declining wages reduce the possibility for family assistance.

A third of adults under 27 also lack health coverage, with nearly half of those young adults earning less than $14,000 per year. Since wages for most people have been effectively stagnant, they have not kept pace with health coverage increases, and the lower you go down the economic ladder, the truer that is. Especially because there's been an ongoing decline in employer-based coverage that has disproportionately affected low-income workers and the small businesses that create the most jobs.

For another worrying indicator, an AARP poll earlier this year indicated that around a quarter of adults 18 and over are living with parents or in-laws. Another 15 percent were worried they might have to do so soon, while one in seven lived with a sibling.

I don't know about you, but the American Dream I was sold didn't include worse buying power and relative wealth than my blue-collar, high school-educated parents for myself , my peers and those who came after me.

The United States' lack of an industrial policy has been cherished for its ability to bring us ever cheaper consumer goods by steadily outsourcing manufacturing work to other countries. It's been great for people who already had money, it's destroyed opportunities for entry-level blue collar work that leads to a reasonable degree of financial security.

You can see the results in the balance sheets of young adults' households and the narrowing of their prospects. They're being pressured to take on the increasingly bad investment of the typical college education to go after a declining pool of jobs that provide dwindling levels of wage and health benefit compensation.

Maybe we don't have to make all the same things we used to make, but our current and future workforce needs the upward pressure on wages and benefits that entry-level and longstanding manufacturing careers used to create. The United States can't continue to support export-led growth elsewhere in the world if our upcoming workforce continues losing the ability to sell their labor in return for a reasonable standard of living. It stands to reason that if financial capital isn't invested in the American workforce producing things that others want to buy, these trends will only continue as the US spends down the accumulated gains of previous productivity.

If Americans want a better future for their children, there needs to be a concerted effort to make more things in America.

Real Change Happens Off-Line

Sally Kohn — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 07:21:23 -0400

Today's American young people feel a deep connection to people in Tibet and Darfur, want to hold corporations accountable to environmental standards and worker justice, and value the role of government in meeting our shared needs. Yet the Internet tools that help Millennials appreciate our interconnectedness may actually erode the community values they seek.

The Millennials, or the cluster of young folks born roughly between 1980 and 1995, were raised between two conflicting phenomena. On the one hand, they have grown up with new technologies that have helped the world connect more easily; on the other hand, they have been raised alongside the rise of hyperindividualism in American culture that has isolated us from each other and the world around us.

As the Millennials were learning to walk, Ronald Reagan proclaimed that the only "excuse government has for even existing" is to protect the rights of individuals, not the larger, common good. Having once played a cowboy on the silver screen, Reagan helped transform America into a radical Darwinian Wild West. Industries were privatized, public school budgets and other social programs slashed, Wall Street given free rein. Reagan's British counterpart, Margaret Thatcher, went a step further, declaring, "There is no such thing as society." In the neoconservative political vision of the era, people were left to fend for themselves.

At the same time, the world became more interconnected than ever. Technology allowed the Millennials not only to imagine the children in Ethiopia, but to actually see them and, eventually, become their friends on Facebook. Changing demographics made the new generation more comfortable with difference and diversity than their parents. Plus, technological connectivity opened the door to economic interdependence.

Today, workers in China rely on shoppers in Chicago; investors in Boston track the latest trends from Bangladesh. And, via their cellphones, the Millennials are plugged into it all.

The political aims and vision of the Millennials clearly buck the Reagan "rugged individualism" in favor of the community values of connectedness, inclusion, and mutual responsibility.

But social movements are based on collective action. The American Revolution, the struggle against apartheid in South Africa, and every significant social change movement in between and since has relied on community organizing, building mutually responsible communities to challenge the status quo.

On their own, for example, none of the activists in the civil rights movement had sufficient power and influence to end segregation. Coming together in local committees, led mainly by young people, they used the tools of face-to-face community organizing, developing shared strategies to address shared problems. And they took shared action; in sit-ins and Freedom Rides, they formed groups that were more than the sum of individual parts.

By contrast, Internet activism is individualistic. It's great for a sense of interconnectedness, but the Internet does not bind individuals in shared struggle the same as the face-to-face activism of the 1960s and '70s did. It allows us to channel our individual power for good, but it stops there.

This is great for signing a petition to Congress or donating to a cause. But the real challenges in our society -- the growing gap between rich and poor, the intransigence of racism and discrimination, the abuses from Iraq to Burma (Myanmar) -- won't politely go away with a few clicks of a mouse. Or even a million.

Millennials are poised to lead us all to reject the hyperindividualism and isolation that has dominated our recent past and recognize the deep interconnectedness and mutual responsibility that is our present and future.

The lone cowboy story was a myth. Our greatest accomplishments, as individuals and as a nation, have almost always come from hitching our wagons to others and working together, not just in going it alone.

To avoid eroding the values Millennials so appreciate, and to truly influence the world around them, they must transform their online activism into off-line communities and build an effective movement for change. From church basements to campus meetings to voters' doors, Millennials need to add face-to-face action to their innate sense of community.

Sally Kohn is a senior campaign strategist with the Center for Community Change, which runs Generation Change, a training program for the next generation of community organizers.

Glen Pritchard

Glen Pritchard — Fri, 09 May 2008 17:23:27 -0400

Diesa Seidel

Diesa Seidel — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 22:37:12 -0500

Depending on the day, you may find Diesa playing professional basketball in Italy, renovating a school in the Bush Country of West Africa, running the NYC Marathon for peace, meeting with UN officials in the Cote d’Iviore, visiting a Buddhist Temple in Thailand, working with Habit for Humanity in Guyana, Coaching a Christian Basketball team in Korea, or meeting with the Minister of Sports of Sri Lanka. She also thinks she is a killer snowboarder.

Regardless of the day, Diesa Seidel is an avid philanthropist who strives to find innovative ways to serve local and international communities. As an educator and athlete, she has a keen interest in creating positive recreational opportunities for youth and encouraging standards for higher education.

Diesa is the Founder and Director of United Initiatives for Peace, Inc.
{United Initiatives for Peace (UI) is a global non-profit organization that collaborates with a variety of institutions (charitable, governmental, religious, educational, medical, corporate) to establish philanthropic and humanitarian service projects dedicated to the holistic evolution of the human race. UI’s primary focus is to assist high need areas and developing countries challenged with political unrest, religious conflict, natural disasters, and economic instability through innovative solutions designed to sustain peaceful and thriving communities. UI believes in the innate goodness of humanity and strives to enrich the lives of all people: embracing diversity and celebrating each other’s race, ethnicity, nationality, religion, and creed.}
Enabling organizations. Enabling philanthropy. Enabling humanity.
United Initiatives for Peace: Enabling Global Synergy.

Diesa currently works as a Physical Education teacher and runs basketball camps and clinics and for youth of all ages (Diesel Hoops, DBA). She is pursuing her Master’s Degree in Public Administration (Non-Profit Management, Urban Education and Leadership) and aspires to establish her own Charter School by 2020.

Diesa has visited over 40 countries and has been recognized on 10 occasions as an Ambassador for Peace by various service project organizations.

{Diesa started her basketball career in her hometown in Upstate New York. There she became her high school's all-time leading scorer (scoring over 1500 points), was named "New York State Player of the Year" in 1997, and was recruited nationally to play Division I basketball.
Following high school, she was granted a full athletic scholarship to play D-I basketball at Marist College. She has been recognized both regionally and nationally for her accomplishments, being named an "Academic All-American." At Marist, she became the all-time leader in blocked shots in a single game, season, and career. Despite injuries, she scored over 1200 points, ranking her amongst the top offensive players in the conference. In 2002 she was named "Marist Sports Person of the Year."
Throughout her summers in college, she earned a spot playing on French Jr. and Sr. National Teams, where she competed in the Jr. European Championships and in the Francophone Games.
After her collegiate career, Diesa played professionally in both France and Italy. While overseas, she played at National Pro A level and competed in the Euroleague (top professional European league). During her rookie season, her team reached the national finals and was awarded the silver medal.}

Diesa works, studies, serves, and resides in New Jersey. She is 27 years old.

Building a Youth Movement - Take Back America 2007

Anne Thompson — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 03:00:00 -0400

Take Back America 2007 panel addressing ways to build a youth movement. Panel: Anna Lefer, Open Society Institute Biko Baker, League of Young Voters Shakmako Nobel, Hip Hop Caucus State Representative Alisha Thomas Morgan, Young Elected Officials Network Jefferson Smith, OR Bus Project