Who Would Want to Inherit This?

They were wearing all black.

She had a ring in her lip. His earrings were glints of metal amongst his oily and badly dyed hair. They couldn’t have been older than 18 and looked like they’d fit in outside a Hot Topic at the mall.

Instead they were standing on a corner outside of Wal-Mart holding a ragged piece of cardboard that read Homeless, need food, please help.

Over the last decade, Charlottesville has won countless awards for quality of life.

Kiplinger’s Magazine ranks Charlottesville as the fourth best place to live in the US. Forbes claims it’s the 11^th best place to look for a job. Both of those rankings are from 2009.

I doubt the lonesome pair by the road would buy into those stats. But then again, it sucks in general to be young right now. Nationwide the official unemployment numbers are holding strong at 9.7% (I’ve commented before that this is greatly downplaying the reality). However, even the official stats indicate that the “next” generation that has been the worst hit.

Unemployment for those between ages 16 and 24 peaked at 19% in September 2007 and currently hangs around 18% today. The Economic Policy Institute points out that typically unemployment is highest for this demographic even during times of economic expansion. However, these current levels are the highest since 1982:

You have to wonder what these kids are thinking. They’re screwed and they’ve barely even entered the job force. Thanks to previous generations they’ve got to foot the bill for tens of trillions in debt ($77 including social security and Medicare). Many of them will have debts of their own from school. And they’re entering a job force that is firmly contracting (unless they land a job in the public sector)

Then of course there is their frustration with the political system. According to US News, up to 54.5 percent of Americans ages 18 to 29 voted in the last election. Not only is that only one percentage point below this group’s all time high participation (in 1972), but young voters actually accounted for a higher proportion of total votes that those in the 65-and-older age category.

Having voted in a big way for the first time in years, the young were rewarded with  a President who immediately surrounded himself with the same crackpot financial types as his predecessor. He reappoints Bernanke, the goof who failed to see this whole thing coming and who oversaw a massive transfer of the public’s wealth to Wall Street. The list goes on.

The market has many issues, but the next generation’s role in them is being overlooked. I’ve detailed age demographics and the impact they will have in the markets before. You can read my thoughts here.

Whatever the impact on the markets, this next generation is inheriting a mess of a financial system/ economy. The private sector hasn’t seen job growth in ten years. The country is more debt ridden than at any other point in its history. “Change” is looking a whole lot like what’s come before. And unemployment for their age demographic is at a multi-decade high.

This next election, if the young vote, is going to be “interesting.”

Good Investing!

Graham Summers

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