The Young America’s Foundation released a report last week that the “Youth Misery Index” has hit an all-time high. Let’s break it down, analyze the trend, and conclude something about it, shall we?
Why are we so “miserable”?
YAF’s study is based on: youth unemployment, average graduating student debt, and national debt per capita.
So we’re sad because we’re poor?
“Youth unemployment is at 16.3 percent—one of the highest levels since World War II,” YAF explains. “Average graduating student debt has reached a record-breaking $29,400. National debt per capita is $52,948—the highest ever. Add it up, and the Youth Misery Index comes out to 98.6.”
Yep, pretty much. And whose fault is that? Obama’s. (But who put him in power?)
“The government is largely responsible for all three problems,” YAF reports, “and we’ve found a statistically significant relationship between government expenditures and the Youth Misery Index. Each indicator can be tied to government actions.”
Define “miserable.”
Are we really miserable, or just discontent? Do we even know the meaning of the word “miserable”?
The study says:
“At no point in recent history has life been harder for America’s young people.”
F’real though? Are we sure about that? Look, we don’t have kids working in factories anymore. Youngins don’t get sent to the mines and die of black lung a few years later. We have shoes on our feet. We have child labor laws. We don’t have to eat vomitous Jell-o casseroles anymore or try to figure out the Dewey Decimal System. Most of us suffer from First World Problems. I don’t know if miserable is the word we should use. It’s a relative term. And I don’t think a foundation was walking around asking poverty-stricken kiddies in one-room school buildings how miserable they were back in the day. (How recent is “recent history”?)
We do have every right to be frustrated:
Our young shoulders are overburdened with debt acquired by our parents’ generation. But is that what is making most of us miserable? If anything, we are making the debt problem worse by our voting ways, and we probably don’t even realize it. The study declares:
“When young people realize, ultimately, they have to pay for [the debt], this is an opportunity for conservatives to get their message out there.”
“When young people realize…” They’ll probably realize when they’re 50 years old or something. Young voters are notoriously uninformed. We have better things to do, like be young. That’s why Obama was elected twice.
I bet the average young person doesn’t have any idea how much debt a citizen of the United States carries with him. I highly doubt your typical American youth wakes up agonizing over the government’s overspending.
Personal debt, though, is a different story.
What we can do about it:
Having to eat Ramen noodles for dinner and sharing living space with a bunch of other people is really awful during college, let alone after you graduate. But such is the reality for much of the degree-holding youth what with such a terrible economy, the prevalence of student debt, high taxes, and everything else a Democratic government perpetrates.
“Young people are really adverse to government intrusion,” YAF claims. Yes, in theory they are, but not as much as one would think, and not really at all when it means they get “free” stuff from Big Brother.
What conservatives need to do is paint a very simple, repetitious, (remember, you’re talking to children), loud, and probably electronic explanation to young people that says, “HEY! R U miserable? Dems’ fault. Vote GOP.”
P.S. About that student debt, not all of us should or has to go to to college. Just sayin’.
Kbye.
Teresa Mull is the managing editor of Human Events.
