Free Republic

One of the most interesting questions about the health care overhaul now moving through Congress is how it would affect young adults. That legislation would force most or all Americans to purchase health insurance (an "individual mandate") and would impose price controls on health insurance ("community rating") that would limit insurers' ability to offer lower premiums to low-risk enrollees. Those provisions would drive premiums down for 55-year-olds but would drive them up for 25-year-olds—who are then implicitly subsidizing older adults. According to the Urban Institute, many young people could see their premiums double, whereas premiums for older adults could be...

It’s that time of year. College seniors from around the world are graduating, and they are hitting the career world looking for a job. And the interesting thing is that most are not doing it alone. Many parents are by their Gen Y’s side and not just for support and to be a sounding board. If you are a helicopter parent who is hovering over your adult child’s job hunt and interview process, you may be hurting your child’s professional development and their chances to land the job. Helicopter parents have not only been bombarding college campuses, they are now...

The love affair between Barack Obama and young Americans may be on the rocks. Recently released figures from the Department of Labor reveal staggeringly high joblessness numbers among America’s youth. Indeed, 53.4 percent of young Americans are without a job – a post-World War II high. With over half of 16-24 year olds jobless, even after stimulus package after stimulus package supposedly meant to create jobs, one has to wonder how Barack Obama’s approval ratings are doing among his strongest supporters. Unsurprisingly, the answer is “worse.” According to Gallup, approval of President Obama among young adults aged 18 to 29...

Bill extends 'kid' coverage to age 27 Wednesday, October 14, 2009 3:07 AM WASHINGTON (AP) -- House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says the House health-care-overhaul bill now being finalized would allow young adults to stay on their parents' health insurance policies until they're 27. Most insurance plans let kids remain on their parents' policies while they're in college. Pelosi said the provision in the House bill would help those who are out of school, looking for work or are part-time employees. The provision is based on Rep. Kathy Dahlkemper's legislation. Dahlkemper said 31 percent of people ages 19 to 29 don't...

When Justin Tevis recently met with the Santa Barbara Police Officers Association to seek the union’s endorsement, he thought the meeting would be about ways to solve the city’s crime and gang violence problems. Instead, he was immediately handed a document with a pay scale showing how much Santa Barbara police officers made in comparison to similar-sized cities. He was stunned. In fact, reforming public employee salaries and pensions is among the top things on Tevis’ list of reforms if elected to the Santa Barbara City Council. “These are huge lobbying groups,” Tevis said. “These are huge power groups.” Tevis...

Recession Creating A Lost Generation High unemployment is damaging the future for America’s youth Dan Schmitz, 25, a University of Wisconsin grad, hasn't had a job in months. [Pic in URL] By Peter Coy Oct . 11, 2009 Bright, eager — and unwanted. While unemployment is ravaging just about every part of the global workforce, the most enduring harm is being done to young people who can't grab onto the first rung of the career ladder. Affected are a range of young people, from high school dropouts to college grads to newly minted lawyers and MBAs across the developed world...

LANDOVER, Md. – The evangelical movement is at a “head-snapping” generational change with younger evangelicals “revolting” against the tone of the Christian Right, says a prominent religious scholar. Across the nation, young evangelicals are naming Rick Warren or Bono as their role model for social engagement, rather than a Christian Right leader, says Michael Gerson, senior research fellow in the Center on Faith & International Affairs at the Institute for Global Engagement. Warren, pastor of Saddleback Church in Lake Forrest, Calif., is known for mobilizing evangelical churches in the battle against HIV/AID in Africa, while U2 frontman Bono is one...

The Lost Generation The continuing job crisis is hitting young people especially hard—damaging both their future and the economy By Peter Coy Bright, eager—and unwanted. While unemployment is ravaging just about every part of the global workforce, the most enduring harm is being done to young people who can't grab onto the first rung of the career ladder. Affected are a range of young people, from high school dropouts, to college grads, to newly minted lawyers and MBAs across the developed world from Britain to Japan. One indication: In the U.S., the unemployment rate for 16- to 24-year-olds has climbed...

Bright, eager—and unwanted. While unemployment is ravaging just about every part of the global workforce, the most enduring harm is being done to young people who can't grab onto the first rung of the career ladder. Affected are a range of young people, from high school dropouts, to college grads, newly minted lawyers and MBAs across the developed world from Britain to Japan. One indication: In the U.S., the unemployment rate for 16- to 24-year-olds climbed to more than 18%, from 13% a year ago. For people just starting their careers, the damage may be deep, long-lasting, potentially creating a...

MONTREAL -- Half of American high-school seniors surveyed recently thought Sodom and Gomorrah were a married couple. A McGill University professor's reference to the patience of Job drew blank stares from students in his religion course. An art history teacher in France found children were mystified by the "strange bird" (a dove representing the Holy Ghost) common in Renaissance paintings. Until recently, such confusion was little more than fodder for faculty-room jokes, evidence of the increasing secularism of Western societies. But educators attending a conference at McGill University yesterday heard there is growing recognition in Europe and North America that...

Amid worse-than-expected job losses and an unemployment rate that hit 9.8% last month, new Labor Department data Friday showed the 21-month recession is taking a greater toll on college graduates than high school dropouts. You're still far more likely to be employed with a bachelor's degree than if you're a high school dropout. But in a telling sign of the breadth of the recession, the latest data also indicate that the numbers of unemployed jobseekers are growing fastest among Americans with higher education. Since the recession began in December 2007, the number of unemployed school dropouts, 25 and older, rose...

Younger Americans just starting out in their careers have always been willing to relocate, but with unemployment high and jobs hard to come by, this mobile generation has become more cautious about making just any move. As a result, cities with staying power and emerging industries may benefit the most once the recession lifts. Leading the list and sharing the number one spot are Washington D.C and Seattle. They're cities with long histories of government jobs and related industries. A Wall Street Journal panel ranked the cities based on job possibilities, affordability and quality of life. One big change, panelists...

Last year the media did not mince words in their race to announce that young voters were flocking to Obama. In fact, a google search I conducted while doing research for this entry yielded 210,000 results for the very specific search phrase "young voters flock to Obama". The link provided is to the first one on the list. It was hardly surprising after young people's ridiculous choice at the polls in 2006, when they helped usher in a new era of governmental horrors by voting in droves for Democrats thus handing them control of Congress. Back in 2007 the new...

The unemployment rate for young Americans has exploded to 52.2 percent -- a post-World War II high, according to the Labor Dept. -- meaning millions of Americans are staring at the likelihood that their lifetime earning potential will be diminished and, combined with the predicted slow economic recovery, their transition into productive members of society could be put on hold for an extended period of time. And worse, without a clear economic recovery plan aimed at creating entry-level jobs, the odds of many of these young adults -- aged 16 to 24, excluding students -- getting a job and moving...

The Dead End Kids Young, unemployed and facing tough future By RICHARD WILNER September 27, 2009 The unemployment rate for young Americans has exploded to 52.2 percent -- a post-World War II high, according to the Labor Dept. -- meaning millions of Americans are staring at the likelihood that their lifetime earning potential will be diminished and, combined with the predicted slow economic recovery, their transition into productive members of society could be put on hold for an extended period of time. And worse, without a clear economic recovery plan aimed at creating entry-level jobs, the odds of many of...

The unemployment rate for young Americans has exploded to 52.2 percent -- a post-World War II high, according to the Labor Dept. -- meaning millions of Americans are staring at the likelihood that their lifetime earning potential will be diminished and, combined with the predicted slow economic recovery, their transition into productive members of society could be put on hold for an extended period of time. And worse, without a clear economic recovery plan aimed at creating entry-level jobs, the odds of many of these young adults -- aged 16 to 24, excluding students -- getting a job and moving...

Mike Matthews, editor of Answers magazine, spoke with Al Mohler, president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, about one of the most pressing questions in the church today: “With so many children leaving the church by their twenties, what are we doing wrong, and what solutions can the church and parents implement?”...

Let me see if I have this right: ACORN, in five locations coast-to-coast are on tape counseling tax fraud, tax evasion, money laundering, and the coup de grace, how to set up a whorehouse for 12 to 15-year-old El Salvadoran sex slaves, and now ACORN and the Left are POed about it being exposed without ACORN’s consent?! What else ticks the Left off about ACORN being uncovered assisting in some of the worst kind of scandalous scat known to mankind? Well, if you Google around you’ll find the “progressives” are peeved not because ACORN had the spotlight bare down on...

Hartford, Conn. - A new study of the 34 million American adults who do not identify with any particular religious group finds that they now largely mirror the wider population in other aspects. However, the group tends to be young, male, politically independent and of Irish ancestry. The number of “Nones” grew greatly in the 1990s. In 1990 they made up 8.2 percent of the population and grew to 14.2 percent by 2001. In 2008 they made up 15 percent. The Nones were the only group to have increased in every state and region of the country during the past...

We are losing our children! Research indicates that 70% of teens who are involved in a church youth group will stop attending church … [1] Similar statements from Christian leaders aren’t new, but many still can’t seem to identify the root cause of the problem. However, most front-line evangelists in the Western world have reached a consensus. The following quote is from a person who shares his faith more times in a month than most Christians ever will in their lives...

Second-generation Americans have found a new way to show their faith, through noisy rock music that reflects their beliefs and considers their questions of identity The notion of Muslims playing punk rock may seem like incongruous cultures -- profanity-laden lyrics following the religion's traditional greeting ("Salaam aleikum"), melodic Middle Eastern strumming punctuates noisy guitar feedback, purple and red mohawks and Arabic-scripted tattoos. But for the second-generation Americans leading this contemporary cultural movement, Muslim punk isn't just an irreverent juxtaposition. "It makes sense," said 23-year-old Marwan Kamel, a Syrian-American and the lead guitarist for Al-Thawra, an experimental punk band whose name...

In parishes all over our archdiocese and the nation, a new season of religious education is beginning. Thousands of adult Catholics have volunteered that time and energy to instruct our children and teenagers what it means to be a follower of Christ. Catholic parents, committed to our faith, are delivering their children to after Mass or evening classes. However, despite the good intentions of teachers and parents, a stark question looms: Is it working? Are our current efforts to past on our faith to the next generation of Catholics bearing fruit? Recent history strongly suggests the faith of Catholics has...

Washington, D.C. Favorite Area For Wealthy Young By Patricia Reaney – Sep 16 NEW YORK (Reuters Life!) – Washington, D.C. has become the favorite area for wealthy young adults, with the nation's highest percentage of 25-34 year-olds making more than $100,000 a year, according to a new analysis. Sixteen of the top 50 counties in the United States with the highest share of wealthy young people are in the Washington, D.C. area. Loudoun county, which is part of the Washington metropolitan area, has 10 percent, or 10,327 young adults, making more than six figures -- more than San Francisco and...

I am a Gen "Y"er (WHY) - so i am questioning A LOT right now. This is the way I see it. I've been doing a lot of 'soul searching' the past few days...taking a step back from things and i honestly wonder if our efforts, anger, frustration is even worth it. We can all agree that our nation is headed to hell in a hand basket. At this stage in the game, in the 9th inning, is it even possible to return to the greatness this nation once was? I can honestly say that most of my generation and...

As health-care legislation advances through Congress, the young adults who were so vital to President Obama's election are emerging as a significant beneficiary of his top domestic priority, but they are also likely to play a major role in funding any reform. In a campaign-style rally Thursday at the University of Maryland at College Park, Obama will aim to tap his richest vein of support -- voters younger than 30 -- to help sell his reform plan to a more skeptical general public. "We're at an important turning point in our push for real reform," read the e-mailed invitation, "and...

As the smoke rose from Lower Manhattan and dissipated into the now famous clear September skies, the secure, safe and invincible American upbringing that our generation had taken for granted as we grew up came crumbling down with the towers...America’s children on 9-11, now known as ‘the internet generation’ or ‘the millennial generation’ suddenly found ourselves in a nation that, from a child’s perspective, not even our parents could keep secure. United we stand, divided we fall was not just a slogan for the generation that now so vehemently demands bi-partisanship, it’s now how many of us seek to conduct...

President Obama's army of citizen volunteers is now actively recruiting college students in states across the country to "build support for President Obama's agenda" – and earn college credit while advocating for "change." Obama for America, Obama's 2008 political campaign, merged with the Democratic National Committee in January and is now known as Organizing for America, or OFA. The movement some call "Obama 2.0" is now recruiting students and offering to provide credits toward degree plans in exchange for their advocacy skills. A message from OFA national volunteer coordinators announcing the recruitment campaign and internship opportunities has been posted on...

Attention all you folks who think of yourselves as counterculture types who demonstrate your rebelliousness by wearing Che Guevara T-shirts. The author of the most popular blog from Cuba, Yoani Sanchez who not only talks the talk but walks the walk, thinks you are absurd. The Generation Y blogger was the subject of a Miami Herald story on Saturday. We will get to her marvelous quote on the subject of Che T-shirts below the fold but first some fascinating information on the person who provides an inside look at what is really happening in Cuba which is often missed by...

Every time they send a text message, watch a YouTube video, log on to Facebook and plug in their iPods, today's kids are getting stupider.At least, that's what Mark Bauerlein argues in his provocative book "The Dumbest Generation: How the Digital Age Stupefies Young Americans and Jeopardizes Our Future."Bauerlein, an English professor at Emory University in Atlanta, has spent the last few years touring the country evangelizing about the dangers of exposing the young to technology.His love-it-or-despise it book, newly released in paperback, has spawned heated arguments among parents, teachers and students who are spending more and more time plugged...

The election of Audra Shay to chairwoman of the Young Republican National Federation in July shined a national spotlight on what is typically a quiet, biannual occurrence for an organization that purports to represent a key GOP constituency. What was widely perceived as Shay’s overt racism attracted unprecedented attention to the YRNF, provoking multitudinous questions about Shay’s suitability for the top job and the nature of the 10,000-member-strong organization. “Audra Shay and The New Ice Age of the Young Republicans,” read one Huffington Post headline, shortly after the July convention in Indianapolis. “Recent events have made one wonder about the...

For class of 2009, degree doesn’t mean a job Fewer than a fifth of graduating seniors even have offers, research finds Alex Johnson Matt Dumont has been looking for work since May. “I’ve had a couple times that I was told that I was one of the top applicants, went in for an interview, and then I just never heard back from them,” said Dumont, who graduated last spring from Abilene Christian University in Texas with a degree in English and minors in Spanish and the Bible. Dumont was haunting the college’s Career Center last week, looking for leads and...

Pike County - Young Republicans in Pike County have formed a chapter of the Pennsylvania Federation of Young Republicans (payrs.com) and the Young Republican National Federation (yrnf.com) in Pike County. The Young Republicans reach out to registered Republicans between the ages of 18 and 40 and is the oldest political youth organization in the country. The Pike County Young Republicans (PCYR) will give young voters in the area an opportunity to become more involved in local, state, and national politics while also giving them the ability to let the party know what is important to young voters today. The PCYR...

BEIJING — Shanghai and Beijing are becoming new lands of opportunity for recent American college graduates who face unemployment nearing double digits at home. Even those with limited or no knowledge of Chinese are heeding the call. They are lured by China’s surging economy, the lower cost of living and a chance to bypass some of the dues-paying that is common to first jobs in the United States. “I’ve seen a surge of young people coming to work in China over the last few years,” said Jack Perkowski, founder of Asimco Technologies, one of the largest automotive parts companies in...

They passed their TAKS exit exams and collected their high school diplomas – yet a troubling number of Texas students struggle their first year in college. At some North Texas high schools, half or more of graduates who go to college earn less than a C average their first year, based on a Dallas Morning News analysis of state data. < snip > ...Some changes ahead: The state will replace TAKS tests with more rigorous end-of-course exams starting with freshmen in 2011-12. Students also now need four years of math and science to graduate, which means they can't blow off...

Proof that our entire population of youth aren't a complete lost cause. She really gets it!

BusinessWeek has an interesting cover story this week about The Leaner Baby Boomer Economy. Calling Mercedes the "the quintessential boomer brand", BusinessWeek estimates that Mercedes will sell a third fewer cars in America. The article also notes efforts by companies like Nordstrom (JWN), Starwood Hotels & Resorts (HOT), Outback Steakhouse, BMW and Target (TGT) to offer value shopping or "cheap chic" in an effort to reach out to generations X and Y. By now most are familiar with this new wave of frugality. Thus the real story is not article itself but the is the easy to miss sidebar statistics...

The Me Diploma by: Malcolm A. Kline, July 28, 2009 When international test scores came out showing that American students scored lower on standardized math tests than Koreans but felt better about themselves, statisticians scratched their heads. It turns out that the Yanks may actually have been living up to what they were trained for. “In a recent study, 39% of American eighth-graders were confident of their math skills, compared to only 6% of Korean eighth-graders,” Jean M. Twenge and W. Keith Campbell report in The Narcissism Epidemic: Living in the Age of Entitlement. “The Koreans, however, far exceeded...

Browsing through new releases at a downtown record store, Chet Mohr of Somerville admitted that commercial radio is far down his source list for finding new music. Where precisely does radio rank? Somewhere between irrelevant and are-you-kidding-me, Mohr indicated. “I’m into local bands and record labels, and they don’t get played on the radio much,’’ said Mohr, a 23-year-old guitar enthusiast and bank employee who hopes to form his own rock band. To broaden his musical palate, Mohr relies on bloggers, Internet message boards, web publications, friends, and social networking sites. Sam Davies, 16, a student at Needham High School,...

KNOWLEDGE of the Bible is in decline in Britain, with fewer than one in 20 people able to name all Ten Commandments and youngsters viewing the Christian holy book as "old fashioned", a survey said today. Forty per cent did not know that the tradition of exchanging Christmas presents originated from the story of the Wise Men bringing gifts for the infant Jesus, while 60 per cent could not name anything about the Good Samaritan, the Durham University study found. Youngsters were particularly disillusioned, telling researchers that the Bible was "old fashioned", "irrelevant" and for "Dot Cottons" - a reference...

Students at John Paul the Great Catholic University (www.jpcatholic) put this hilarious video together. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ofM3nnh5xGk&feature=channel_page

WASHINGTON – There is a growing “religion gap” between older Americans and those under 30, according to a new Pew Research Center Social & Demographic Trends survey. The study released June 29 found that one-fourth of Americans ages 18-29 said they were atheists, agnostics or had no religion, while only 7 percent of those 65 and over described themselves that way. Eighteen percent of those ages 30-49 and 13 percent of those 50-64 fell into the no religion/atheist/agnostic category. At 7 percent, the under-30s also were more than twice as likely as those 65 and over (3 percent) to say...

The Bible calls the Church "the Body of Christ." Today, that body is bleeding profusely, says a Christian author and sought-out speaker. "The next generation of believers is draining from the churches, and it causes me great personal and professional concern," said Ken Ham, founder and president of Answers in Genesis and a Young Earth creationist. Hoping to shed light on what he believes is a monumental problem, Ham enlisted the services of America's Research Group to study why young people were leaving. The results, published in Already Gone, will shake many churches to their very core, Ham states in...

WASHINGTON - From cell phones and texting to religion and manners, younger and older Americans see the world differently, creating the largest generation gap since the tumultuous years of the 1960s and the culture clashes over Vietnam, civil rights and women's liberation. A new study released Monday by the Pew Research Center found Americans of different ages increasingly at odds over a range of social and technological issues. It also highlights a widening age divide after last November's election, when 18- to 29-year-olds voted for Democrat Barack Obama by a 2-to-1 ratio. Almost eight in 10 people believe there is...

HCL Technologies is one of India's most powerful and respected tech firms. The company scored a massive $170M USD outsourcing contract from Microsoft last year. Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer lavished them with praise, stating, "That extra mile walk by the team (at HCL) has increased our mutual trust and has taken our relationship to newer heights. " Now HCL's CEO Vineet Nayar has gone on record with some controversial remarks about the quality of American technology college graduates. Tired of hearing stereotypes about Indian tech grads, Mr. Nayar, speaking before an audience of business partners in New York City, blasted...

OK, before you get your knickers in a twist, let's put the CEO's comments into context. Vineet Nayar, the highly respected CEO of HCL Technologies, one of India's hottest IT services vendors, was speaking this morning in New York City to an audience of about 50 customers and partners when he related a recent experience with an education official in a large U.S. state. The official wanted to know why HCL, a $2.5 billion (revenue) company with more than 3,000 people across 21 offices in 15 states, wasn't hiring more people in his state. Vineet's short answer: because most American...

CAIRO – Iran clamped down Tuesday on independent media in an attempt to control images of election protests, but pictures and videos leaked out anyway — showing how difficult it is to shut off the flow of information in the Internet age. The restrictions imposed by the government made such social-networking sites as Twitter and Flickr more prominent — with even the U.S. State Department calling on Twitter to put off a scheduled shutdown for maintenance. Iranians were posting items online, but it wasn't known how much of that information was being seen by others inside the country. And although...

Passers-by were shocked to see rowdy bikini-clad students struggling to stand up and vomiting at midday on a Sunday afternoon. This year for the first time in 80 years the garden party, organised by the Wyverns, an all-male Magdalene College drinking society, had to be held in a new location after officials banned students from holding the event on university land.

(AP) — WASHINGTON-The Pew Research Center has found that young Muslims are more religiously observant than their parents, and Gallup polling shows they are more likely than their parents to think of themselves as Muslim first and American second.

Leigh Wolf graduated from San Francisco State University this spring and most recently served as Co-Chair of the California College Republicans. In 2008 under Leigh's leadership, SFSU was named College Republican National Committee Chapter of the Year. Ultimately, he was successful in leading the most effective chapter in the country. Leigh will be honored on Friday during our Biennial Convention in Washington, D.C. During the convention, we'll also be electing the next National Chairman of the College Republicans. A special thanks to all of our nominees for their hard work and continued efforts to the conservative cause. Don't forget to...

The Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) is an international comparison of 15-year-olds conducted by The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) that measures applied learning and problem-solving ability. In 2006, U.S. students ranked 25th of 30 advanced nations in math and 24th in science. McKinsey & Company, in releasing its report "The Economic Impact of the Achievement Gap in America's Schools" (April 2009) said, "Several other facts paint a worrisome picture. First, the longer American children are in school, the worse they perform compared to their international peers. In recent cross-country comparisons of fourth grade reading, math, and...