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Editorial
Millennials face issue issues similar to Depression years
Wednesday, March 26, 2014
Quick, what do today's 20-somethings have in common with their grandparents?
They may be worse off than their parents.
According to the Pew Research Center, millennials -- those born anywhere from the late 1980s to about 2000, are facing economic realities foreign to every generation born since the Great Depression.
Low income, high unemployment and debt from educational ventures that didn't pay off, are giving today's young people plenty to worry about.
Like their parents the Baby Boomers, millennials are a force to be reckoned with -- when about 80 million Americans do anything, whether it's make a certain purchase or worry about a certain issue, it affects us all.
According to Pew Research, about half of millennials with student loans say the debt has made it more difficult to make ends meet.
That's even harder because of unemployment; about 13 percent of the 18-to-24 age group were out of work in the first month of this year.
The share of young adults living in their parents' home reached an historic high in 2012, three years after the Great Recession supposedly ended.
Most of them say they would like to get married, but many won't, because their income and education don't leave them with a "solid economic foundation."
Millennial have less wealth and income that the Gen Xers and boomers they are following.
Many of them spend more than they make and feel trapped by credit card payments and other bills like payments for cars, which more and more millennials are finding they can do without.
Among even those with good jobs with a workplace retirement plan, only 57 percent are contributing enough money to take full advantage of the employer match.
Obamacare isn't doing anything to calm millennials' fears, as they face increasing fines for not buying something they couldn't afford in the first place.
Raising the minimum wage is likely to be just as ineffective as forcing young, undereducated Americans to buy health insurance.
Only federal policies that allow and encourage economic growth and resulting employment can answer the questions today's and future generations face.