America's youth have it rough

Us young adults have it rough. We have to establish who we are, what we stand for and what we want to do.

 As if that is not enough, we have to continue to stand under the constant weight our parents, guardians and society put on our shoulders. 

Parents and guardians put pressure on us with our best interests in mind: they want to see us successful and happy, and for us to go far.

 Society, however, seems to only see us as statistics, and problems in today’s world. 

Recently,  the United States looks like it is unraveling before our eyes, but blaming it on young adults seems more than unfair. 

John Della Volpe, who directs polling at Harvard’s Institute of Politics, said in an interview, “This generation is going through an economic reset.”

Volpe argues the reason for the reset is that young people want to stay more connected with their hometowns. Data from the Census Bureau supports this trend with the likelihood of 20-somethings moving to another state dropping 40 percent since the 1980s. 

According to Volpe, the reason the unemployment rate is 8.3 percent is that young adults are refusing to move in search of jobs. What he forgot to take into account is that young adults are in high school and college, which is just as demanding as a full-time job.

Todd G. Buchholz, an economist that served as a White House director of economic policy and the managing director of the Tiger hedge fund, said, “Today’s generation is literally going nowhere.”

Buchholz and Volpe need to look at the bigger picture. Yes, the statistics say that the number of young adults living at home doubled between 1980 and 2008, but college is a factor that directly affects jobs and living at home. 

Between 1999 and 2009, enrollment for college increased 38 percent. Young adults are seeking a better education for themselves. Being in college is around-the-clock work, which would make it impossible to keep up with a full-time job to pay the rent. Living at home is a no-brainer option. 

Because it would be harmful to grades to keep a full-time job while in college, many students overlook full-time jobs. This is not a bad thing. We are in college to receive a degree. When we are adults with a career, the generation behind us will have big shoes to fill.

College was never as popular as it is now. Times are changing, which means that old statistics are not applicable to the present. When we are adults, there will be new fads and expectations that we will hold to our younger generation.

Society needs to lighten up a bit on their statistics, and just let the younger generation do its thing. In a few years from now, we will be the new elders; we should remember that the weight and blame should not always be placed on the younger ones’ shoulders.