Pay attention to this trend because it’s not going away. You need to understand how the next generations are thinking and how they’re voting. Joel Kotkin writes:
Twenty-first-century America may be dominated by oligarchic elites, but arguably the biggest threat to our economic and political system might be located further down the food chain. This most dangerous class comes from the growing number of underemployed, overeducated people. They’re what has been described in Britain as the lumpenintelligentsia: alienated, angry, and potentially agents of our social and political deconstruction.
This is far more than an angry mob shouting in keystrokes, but the proto-proletariat of a feudalizing post-industrial society. Overall, notes one recent study, over the past 20 years we have created twice as many bachelor’s degrees as jobs to employ them. Instead of finding riches in the “new economy,” many end up in lower-paying, noncredentialed jobs. They then compete with working-class kids, often products of similarly dysfunctional high schools; an estimated one-third of American working-age males are now outside the labor force, suffering high rates of incarceration, as well as drug, alcohol, and other health issues.
Although they are not subject to the same pressures of the working class, the fate of those attending college and even graduating is far from bright. This is the most-anxious generation in recent history, and for good reason. Today more than 40 percent are working in jobs that don’t require their degree, according to a recent report from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Another study notes that most may never ascend to the kinds of jobs that graduates have historically enjoyed.
This is a global phenomenon. Over a quarter of Chinese graduates are unemployed, and the number is increasing.
Action Line: For years Americans have been led to believe that if they mortgage their future on college, and achieve a degree, the road to success is clear. Now many of them are finding that isn’t so. It turns out there’s only so much demand for certain majors, and the mismatch is wide. Encourage your children and grandchildren to research the demand for their college major before they enter school, and afterward. Put them on the right path to saving for retirement with a free copy of Your Survival Guy’s Special Report: How To Invest After Graduating College.
