Young people, especially youth of color, are facing one of the greatest crises in generations, as decades-old budget cuts, Wall Street excesses and assaults on unions have created a spiral of few education options and unemployment nationwide.
The number of young people in the U.S. who are not in school and are unemployed is at the highest level since World War II, relates a report from the Annie E. Casey Foundation, released Dec. 3. Over 6 million youth, aged 16 to 24, are essentially stuck at home without the opportunities needed to develop job skills. These young people are referred to as “disconnected” in the report, but even those still in school but attempting to enter the workforce face a similarly grim outlook.
Since 2000, the number of working youth has plummeted, with only about half of young people holding jobs in 2011. Youth unemployment was greatest in states like Mississippi, where 49 percent of youth, ages 20 to 24, were not working. However, New York, Georgia and Louisiana were not far behind, notes the study, titled, “Youth and Work: Restoring Teen and Young Adult Connections to Opportunity.” For youth of color, the numbers are especially troubling, with African American young people and Latino youth experiencing higher rates of unemployment and diminished educational options than their white peers.
The findings come at a time when protests over jobs, austerity, education cutbacks and corporate profiteering are increasing globally. Demonstrations have rocked Spain, Ireland, Italy and Slovenia, among other countries, with thousands in the streets demanding jobs, opportunities for youth, education and more. In the United States, Republicans and Democrats have been on extensive media tours on “fiscal cliff” negotiations, in which education and other social service cuts are slated to happen in January.
Fear among the powerful of rising protests on U.S. shores is growing, as arch-conservatives like Sarah Palin rush to differentiate “corrupt dirty crony capitalism” from “genuine free market capitalism … the good kind of capitalism.” Palin, appearing on Fox News’ Sean Hannity program Dec. 3, was reacting to a new Gallup poll indicating growing public sentiment in support of socialism. Skyrocketing CEO pay amid layoffs, heartless holiday foreclosures and youth resentment over the corporate plunder of education have exposed social inequities as never before. “[C]apitalism in general has taken a hit because of this new public awareness,” Palin told Hannity. “And perhaps, people are believing that capitalism in general isn’t such a good thing.”
For once, Sarah Palin is right. Capitalism is not such a good thing, not when the human potential of millions of youth is squandered in joblessness, while all around us there is work that needs to be done to make our society safe and environmentally sustainable. In a socialist society, a job and an education would be a right.
