Who cares about the young and jobless?

[frigidmagi]

CNN

Washington (CNN) -- Whatever happened to unemployment?

I don't mean the fact of unemployment. We know what's happened to that: nothing. It's as grindingly miserable as ever.

I mean the issue of unemployment. You'd think that nearly 9% unemployment (more than 25% for teenagers, more than 15% for African-Americans) would be kind of a big deal politically. You'd think that citizens would be demanding action, and that politicians would be ferociously competing to offer solutions. But if so, you'd be wrong.

To judge from our politics, you'd almost think we had put the recession behind us.

Quick quiz: What are the major things done in 2010 -- or even proposed -- by any elected official with an aim to bringing unemployment down? It's a short list.

The year's one big job measure was the "quantitative easing" undertaken in November by the Federal Reserve in which it sought to stimulate the economy by expanding the supply of money. But of course the Fed is an unelected body.

The elected branches of government had other priorities. For Democrats, priorities included health care reform, food safety and the repeal of "don't ask, don't tell."

For Republicans, priorities included renewal of the Bush tax cuts and the battle against the Democratic health reform.

But when it came to jobs: Nobody had the mission.

Now in 2011, with a new Congress, still nobody has the mission.

For newly empowered Republicans at the federal and state level, the mission is cutting government spending.

For defensive Democrats, the mission is preserving government programs and public-sector pay.

For the unemployed, the message is: Wait for things to get better gradually.

And for the young especially, the message is: What's the matter with you?

In fact, it's become a minor journalistic genre, the baffled inability by the older generation to comprehend what today's young people face. In August, The New York Times magazine published a long article puzzling over the question: "Why are so many people in their 20s taking so long to grow up?"

Apparently, for bafflingly complex cultural reasons, today's young people are neglecting to accept jobs. Instead, they are floundering around, returning to their parents' homes and postponing serious relationships. How to explain this behavior?

"Cultural expectations might also reinforce the delay. The 'changing timetable for adulthood' has, in many ways, become internalized by 20-somethings and their parents alike. Today young people don't expect to marry until their late 20s, don't expect to start a family until their 30s, don't expect to be on track for a rewarding career until much later than their parents were."

And the boys are the worst, or so argued an essay in The Wall Street Journal this past weekend by Kay Hymowitz, usually a shrewd and lucid observer of the relations between the sexes.

"Relatively affluent, free of family responsibilities, and entertained by an array of media devoted to his every pleasure, the single young man can live in pig heaven -- and often does."

But of course most of today's young are not relatively affluent. Even the college-educated minority face a punishing economic environment. If they don't expect to be "on track for a rewarding career until much later than their parents were," that diminished expectation should tell us less about them than it does about their country.

If anybody cared. Or more exactly, if anybody cared who wielded any political clout.

But what if they did care? Let me be specific -- what if my fellow Republicans had cared? That small cut in the payroll tax that President Barack Obama requested in December? We would have pressed for it in April 2009, in place of the president's own badly designed stimulus. We would have demanded that the president fill vacancies on the Federal Reserve with new governors committed to Milton Friedman's recipe for economic depression: aggressively expansionary monetary policy.

We would have favored a speed-up of necessary infrastructure spending, in place of the president's blue-sky fantasy of a high-speed rail network in the 2020s or 2030s.

We would have made clear that the national debt is an enormously important problem -- but not an immediately urgent problem. Employment must come first; debt reduction must wait until unemployment drops below 8%.

We would not have begrudged the extension of unemployment relief. And we would above all have banged and banged the drum about youth unemployment, so that -- if nothing else -- the hard-hit cohort of 20-somethings would know that somebody in Washington gave a damn about them. It would not have been a miracle. But it would have been better than the shockingly little that was offered instead, by both our disappointing political parties.

I agree with David Frum here.

[KlavoHunter]

And the boys are the worst, or so argued an essay in The Wall Street Journal this past weekend by Kay Hymowitz, usually a shrewd and lucid observer of the relations between the sexes.

"Relatively affluent, free of family responsibilities, and entertained by an array of media devoted to his every pleasure, the single young man can live in pig heaven -- and often does."

Pig heaven? Fuck you! You think I LIKE living in my room at my parents' place without a job, sitting on the computer and being depressed?

I'd rather have a job, be able to afford my own place, and be able to live with my girlfriend in that place, fuck you very much.

[Derek Thunder]

Pig heaven? Fuck you! You think I LIKE living in my room at my parents' place without a job, sitting on the computer and being depressed?

I'd rather have a job, be able to afford my own place, and be able to live with my girlfriend in that place, fuck you very much.

It's almost as if affluent middle-aged Manhattan-ites have no idea how people live outside of the bubble, came of age in an economic system that was completely different than ours, felt no ill effects from the largest economic crash since the second World War, and should thus be first against the wall...

I think their reasoning is wrong, but I sympathize with the contempt felt among heartland conservatives directed towards over-educated, wealthy cultural elites on the coasts.

I don't agree with Frum's jab at the stimulus, but otherwise he's spot-on. There's a real lack of economic opportunity for young people, even the well-educated (I can attest to this as an anecdote, but in my case it's probably because I suck).

[The Cleric]

I counted 12 hiring signs walking the length and back of my mall today (got lunch from a place on the other side). I know anecdotal evidence isn't much to go by, but I'm just not seeing the lack of ANY employment. Sure, you're only going to make $10/hour, but it's better than not.

[frigidmagi]

And I am employed in a crappy job and have applied at no less then 12 places in an attempt to improve my job standing. No one has called back. Meanwhile my roommate Adam who is a college graduate has been questing relentlessly for a position, any position so he can start his professional life. He has had dozens of job interviews and... gotten no where.

Don't assume Los Vegas is typical of the rest of the country just to start man.

[Derek Thunder]

Well, there's always going to be some turn-over, but I think the issue of underemployment/malemployment is just as serious as unemployment - people having to take work in unrelated fields and delaying starting a career path. There are obviously worse places to be than a $10 mall job, but such positions don't lend themselves to a body of skills/experience you can leverage to secure entry to the middle class.

I just find it frustrating that this issue isn't being reported on more, and props to David Frum for even mentioning it. Something tells me it has a lot to do with the fact that young people don't vote, and tend to make their politics known in... well, less confrontational ways. Social networking is great, but it seems more useful as a tool to organize in meatspace rather than a medium of protest in itself.

Then again, I speak as a failed geologist who should probably hang up his rock hammer for good, so take this as you wish.

[The Cleric]

I haven't been in Vegas in over 2 years. Annapolis, Maryland (again) now.