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Young Americans Face
A Brutal Summer
By Lurita Doan
6/6/2011
Young Americans graduating from colleges across the United States are
facing limited job prospects, high debt and the likely necessity of
returning home to live with parents in order to survive, a bitter
harvest from the Obama Economy.
Our current economic policies that continue to find new and even more
inventive ways to punish the prudent, destroy the entrepreneurial ,
reward the most irresponsible, all while burdening future generations
with trillions in new debt. Commencement speeches traditionally
focus on bright futures and change and “oh–the-places-you’ll-go” in an
optimistic, nationwide, rah-rah as graduates turn their tassels and
launch forth to conquer new worlds. Good luck with that.
Closer to the truth would be a stark admission that Obama’s economic
policies have failed and the evidence is all around us. The
most recent Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) report shows that the
jobless rate (despite repeated manipulations of the data by the Obama
Administration) has climbed to 9.1%, with decreases in both private and
public sector jobs.
Gas prices remain high, averaging almost $4 per gallon across the
United States. The Consumer Confidence Index fell to a six-month
low, coming in at 60.8 (a rating of 90 shows a healthy economy).
The housing market has hit a new low, according to the S&P
Case/Schiller Home Price Index, and confirms the existence of a double
dip in housing prices across the United States.
Even the United States’ comprehensive scorecard for the economy, the
Gross Domestic Product (GDP) report shows that growth is slow.
All of these indicators, on top of the recent BLS jobless report,
provide proof that the economy is not growing, the recovery has not
happened and that the over $1 trillion dollars that the Obama
Administration spent in Stimulus did not stimulate the economy.
Is it any wonder that across the country the morale is low and that
Americans think, increasingly, that the federal government is out of
touch with the concerns of the average working American?
For minorities, the prospects of a good job are especially bleak;
unemployment for white Americans averaged 8.9%, but African Americans
averaged 17.5%, just a little more than double the rate of white
unemployment. Hispanic Americans reported 11.9%
unemployment.
Still, despite the grim outlook for newly minted college grads, these
college grads are better off than high school grads. Young teens
looking to gain work experience are finding that even low-skilled,
part-time, jobs aren’t there. Unions don’t seem to want young
people competing for jobs that their adult union members might
perform. And, with a high minimum wage, small business owners are
hesitant to bring on inexperienced labor in this uncertain economic
climate.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics’ report shows that the hardest hit among
all of the unemployed are America’s teens. African Americans,
ages 16-19, of both sexes, show a mind-boggling 40.7% unemployed; white
teens show 20.7% unemployment and Hispanic teens report 26.1%
unemployment. The long-term repercussions of these unemployment
numbers are troubling, yet the Obama Administration is curiously silent.
Team Obama has spent trillions of dollars and enormous political
capital advancing stimulus plans and other empty calorie policies that
have failed to spark employment, especially among America’s
young. Instead, Obama’s policies have only further eroded
American competitiveness, hindered job creation.
Young men and women with no job, and little hope of finding a job,
represent a strain on the social fabric of the nation as they become
angry and resentful over the lack of employment opportunities.
They will need, and demand, additional aid and support from the
government, so social spending is likely to grow.
The consequences of a growing and prolonged unemployment within the
minority and teen work community, combined with preferential
legislation, create a dangerous racial cocktail of time, idleness and
increased expectation of entitlements. With the high tax
structure and the ever-increasing hostility towards wealth creation,
entrepreneurial energies aren’t there and Americans should expect that
the jobless situation will only get worse.
Young Americans will likely face the worst summer in recent
history. After over two years of “fixes”, the Obama
Administration has shown that they are bankrupt of ideas and incapable
of providing solutions to the country’s growing problems. The White
House seems aware of this and is likely to launch a “charm offense”,
fire up social-media savvy Obama accolades and talk about how hip they
are rather than providing solutions.
How sad is that?
Read it at Townhall
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