But why? It used to be when you didn't have a job, you'd become self employed. Now, with taxes and regulation it's really hard for someone to do that. Then there's the situation with competition from overseas. If people would buy "made in the USA" and there could be a push back to locally made goods, that would employ a lot of people.
I hear younger people complain about the lack of opportunities for stable full-time jobs, which is true. So why do I still see them in line buying Chinese and other foreign crap? Why aren't they lobbying for more local control of their lives instead of storm-trooping for Obama? Why don't they demand more control of their lives instead of more freebies? They're going to inherit this world, mostly without the skills for self-sufficiency and innovation that earlier generations had. I do hope they figure that out, as a group.
You can overlay the Millenials with the folks born just before the start of WWI. Their first full decade was during the postwar boom. Their second decade is full of economic turmoil, political unrest, and distant wars. We all know how their third decade turned out. The matching generation from the last cycle was “the greatest Generation.” It is likely the “kids” today are going to have to carry the burden of the past generations.
And the ones to screw things up were not the boomers—it was the “silent” generation who came into adulthood immediately after the war. When you see a leader and they graduated from college from 1947 through 1956—those are the ones you have to look out for. They have a chip on their shoulder from being constantly compared to their older siblings—the ones who saved the world. They are the only American Generation who have not produced a President.
You are absolutely correct.