Part of putting our opinions on paper is committing to being quotable and dissectible, whether by supporters or cynics. Today, we’re on a limb about young Americans’ futures.
Raising children has always been a nail biting, brain-busting, heart-breaking, worst, most wonderful challenge humanity has ever had. Today, particularly in America, the task has not only become more complicated by society and the pressures thereof, but by the standards that many of today’s young people have come to expect.
We’ve often discussed various factors of these changing norms, their effect on parent/child relationships, and the fallout thereof. A parent’s job is to teach children to function on their own, fend for themselves, and provide for themselves when they hit those marks. Sadly, today, many young people aren’t really developing the self-sufficiency skills as age-appropriately as they did even just a generation ago. Parents are stuck between keeping children safe and preparing them for independence, between clarifying the difference between what is needed and what is merely wanted as necessary just so as to keep up with the Jones kids in an increasingly “selfie” world.
As our children become adults, we are faced with contending with the complexities presented by the critical economic climate in America today, which has created not only a huge delay in self-sufficiency among young adults, but the inability for many to move on after college, as it often fails to provide the career security needed to do so. Struggling young adults, sometimes, even more economically stable young adults must rely, occasionally or temporarily, on more settled income producers. Parents or even grandparents are carrying greater responsibilities longer than ever before. Once they worked toward their up and coming generation excelling, and creating a more fruitful life than theirs. Now, these elders watch their descendants working harder for less. America doesn’t function to its full potential for everyone.
The current economic challenges in America are real, even past the over-protective, over-indulgent Catch-22 that complicates every move parents can make. Despite much of what some of us buy into, or our government and corporate leadership tout, viable incomes in our current job market grow increasingly harder to come by. When achievable, the spiraling cost of housing and health care just cancels it out, justifying the widespread disenchantment with our current American situation.
Some of us may just be fortunate, or well-connected. Others may just be in denial. The rest of us are left searching for a paycheck that validates the cost of feeding our kids and renting or buying a shelter that even minimally suits. It’s not hype … especially not to those caught in the undertow. Worse, it’s no accident.
Certainly, we became a two-income nation long ago. Back in the 1980s when “we the people” thought we were going to catch a break with the recognition of a second salary by lenders, the powerful Oz pounced, and everything just became more expensive. Single income households for middle income earners went extinct, birthing the dual income economy. Some people will argue with this, but the babble is part of the agenda.
Now, the 2020s have made it even harder. Some boast about taxes and helpful plans, but we all know what’s happening. Considering economic independence is difficult, or even impossible, for such a large percent of young people – even those with degrees in their fields – that many are choosing to work out-of-country, if they can.
U.S. News & World Report, among other sources, states that requests, only in the first half of 2023, to give up U.S. citizenship for that of other nations has doubled over those in all of 2022, while residents outside the states are being waylaid in their requests to trade their U.S. citizenship for that of the country in which they live.
This increase in citizens seeking citizenship outside of the states hints that something is askew, economically as well as politically. America is slipping backwards into policies hampering personal advancement for all, but especially the younger generations today. Many pontificate that we must work harder, earn more degrees, and deny ourselves more, but the tilt remains.
The only way to keep America strong and free is through the ability for all to achieve, and that means justice in government. We are very off-track, and massive change to a government that now only serves some individuals is the only way back.
No one has to believe Chatterbox, but the real truth is only in uninvested research.
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