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I'd like to have some relative ease in finding a decent job after graduation. I'd like universal health care. I'd like the government to keep its nose out of **** it doesn't need to be in (in other words, legalize weed and get out of the marriage business). I'd like us to rein in military spending and stop fighting senseless wars. Etc.
I'd like to have some relative ease in finding a decent job after graduation. I'd like universal health care. I'd like the government to keep its nose out of **** it doesn't need to be in (in other words, legalize weed and get out of the marriage business). I'd like us to rein in military spending and stop fighting senseless wars. Etc.
Heh, neither. If I had to pick a party right now, I think I'd go Democrat just because I think the GOP has been infiltrated by too many hard-right neoconservatives and the moderate members of the party don't seem too interested in rejecting/quieting them. Granted the Dems have their looneys too but they generally don't seem as bad as the Republican version wingnuts.
Here's a very interesting survey done by Harvard University. I don't know how the survey was structured, or which young people they selected, but it's still pretty interesting, especially in light of the current planks in both political party's platforms.
They asked young people to decide between two different options. For instance, what's your highest priority...lowering the tax burden for all Americans or ensuring affordable access to health care? (lowering taxes lost) Or, what's the highest priority in this case...creating jobs and lowering the unemployment rate or protecting individual liberties from government (jobs wins...in EVERY matching with any other subject).
It makes pretty interesting study, especially when one considers that in a very short time, these young people WILL BE the dominate power in America.
It also points out something some of us have been saying for a long time: Young people today are not a lost generation of selfish video game players. They are alert, informed and involved.
Interesting article and research approach, with the forced tests and all.
The responses tend to reinforce my view the this board has a lot of retired, conservative curmudgeons, who like to talk trash about others, and don't really realize that the game has really changed for young people now. It is hard to get started, especially with little education.
Interestingly, given the dumbell shape of our age profile, these young Millennials will be increasingly ruling the roost and throwing their weight around. They alread are with the OWS efforts. They are the new boomers, and they will be heard. Even on this blog.
I think they are still trying to get on their feet, but we will here more.
But the desire for jobs and affordable health care came through loud and clear.
I am a "Millennial" (though I prefer the term "Generation Y") at 25 years of age.
I see this study as accurate.
In some way, Gen Y is different from Gen X, the Baby Boomers, etc. But when it boils down to it, most care about the things people have always cared about:
> A job
> A house
> Kids / family / spouse (about a third of my class is either married or has a kid by now, per FB)
Having a daughter that's just about college age, there's one overriding theme that the young seem to have in common. They feel this sense that all injustice should be righted, or what they deem to be injustice. Of course, as you mature, you realize that some things should just take their natural course, that some people really do bring about their own bad luck, and that some things are truly worth fighting for. I think as youth change over from the child's point of view of the world into one of an adult, they change their priorities and political views.
Does this survey surprise me at all? Nope. It lends right into the issues of the day as to what they deem injustice. Taxes, family, mortgages, and careers will have an impact on their views as they mature. What would really interest me is if they surveyed these exact same people 20 years from now!
I have only a high school education; I never ever amased thousands of dollars of debt when I was young. I went directly from high school into a Union and worked every day for 32 years in the IBEW. I made outrageous wages only because I was being prepared for that last day of school to beginning work full time.
You should have gone into any of the high paying construction jobs in an apprenticeship. 1973 I was making 2k per week as an electrician (w/overtime).
But 90'sman seems to be totally clueless on how to obtain a high paying job with just a high school diploma. My father started to train me.. Every weekend; when I was in the 3rd grade! Every summer or school vacation I was working on a construction job in some manner!
I raised more than 4 children - and we lived an extremely comfortable lifestyle with no debt(s). My 4 sons are all self employed; they work @ home and they make 10 times what I used to make working for someone else!
With all due respect, times have changed. Even the most menial of jobs now want a degree just to apply. Those who are able to find a job now, as a young person, that pays well without a degree are rare exceptions.
Having a daughter that's just about college age, there's one overriding theme that the young seem to have in common. They feel this sense that all injustice should be righted, or what they deem to be injustice. Of course, as you mature, you realize that some things should just take their natural course, that some people really do bring about their own bad luck, and that some things are truly worth fighting for. I think as youth change over from the child's point of view of the world into one of an adult, they change their priorities and political views.
Does this survey surprise me at all? Nope. It lends right into the issues of the day as to what they deem injustice. Taxes, family, mortgages, and careers will have an impact on their views as they mature. What would really interest me is if they surveyed these exact same people 20 years from now!
Of course their views will probably change over time. That's just a part of maturing. But, the young people in the survey are voters today and if either party simply dismisses their opinions because they are young, it would a tragedy and a mistake. The future of America is theirs, not ours.
Some of we old curmudgeons here are old enough to remember the 1960's and how the Robert Kennedy campaign tapped into a similar vein of youthful anger and sensitivity to injustice. Before that campaign, the Democratic Party had a huge and powerful conservative wing, but the rising tide of young people (the boomers then) produced a sea change in that party which still lasts today. The party shifted to the left and has remained there ever since. The old-line, anti-communist conservative Democrats slowly shifted to the GOP. In fact, they were the foundation of the Neo-Conservative movement which controls that party today.
The point is that since the upcoming generation is so large, and since its demographics are noticeably different from the boomer generation, they represent an as yet latent and untapped power base for any politician who's willing to address them specifically. Obama did it in 2008, but it doesn't seem to have lasted, I think because he's viewed as TOO FAR left.
To me, what comes through the clearest from that survey is that they are dedicated centrist's who reject the extremities. Who is speaking for them this election cycle?
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