In the News

Some people bring you the news - others share the news - Future Majority brings you what's really going on with our generation and why it matters. Think about sharing on your Facebook or Tweeting it.

• The economy is so bad that Lawyers settle for temp jobs. I've actually been hearing about this from friends graduating from law schools and from older folks who are working at firms. Firms just don't have the money to hire new law school grads. They'll take them for internships but they can't afford the expense for new council.
• That said - you can still go hang out with some fun people. On behalf of Van Jones, you are cordially invited to the launch of Rebuild The Dream!
• OK this isn't entirely youthy but it's kinda a BFD. These people have been going after bloggers and websites who quote content from news pieces and claim that it's copyright infringement. Here's the thing, we bring you a lot of information, always cite it, and comment on it. They say this is illegal. But a judge says BS and they should just die a slow death (legally speaking). Judge to Copyright troll: your lawsuits are shams, give it up
• Workers in the European Union say that unpaid internships are bad. So now there's a nice Unpaid internships bill in EU gains momentum
• Well this is cool and super nice of them! Wish there were more people out there doing this! I know our generation could use it. If you live in the Chicago area - jump on the opportunity! New Naperville company helps college students find jobs
• I'm so excited CBS noticed: College Costs soar, and wages cover less of the tab
  One problem is this:

  "If you have any doubt about the value of a college degree, just look at the employment numbers. Overall unemployment is at 9.1 percent, but among college graduates, it's just 4.5 percent."

  These are "general numbers" and doesn't splice out 18-29 year olds - this stat is for all generations and all ages. Despite this story being about young people the numbers aren't the unemployment numbers for young people which are nearly double what CBS cites.
  

  The most important part of this piece is this:

  "In 1980, a 10-week summer job at minimum wage meant a teenager could save up about half of the cost of a year's tuition at a public university. Today, that same minimum wage job covers only 18 percent."

  With increases in costs running rampant wages haven't kept up which makes our society and our economy out of balance. This will be the broken leg our generation will be forced to stand on for years to come.

• Paying off student loan debt through job opportunities - should students seek out employment that allows repayment and forgiveness
• The decline but not fall of hierarchy - what young people really want. Oddly enough this feature in Forbes doesn't include the answer to "what young people want" as being "jobs, health care, affordable education." But rather... social media access.... Ok ok its true yes we want that too but I think that comes behind the big three at the top....
  

  "having grown up engaging in dialogue with prominent commentators, journalists, and politicians, Generation Y wants the same at work and large companies have now incorporated social media platforms across their organizations..."

• Debt ignores young people's concerns
• Why young people were more interested to work in Australia?
• As Economy Further impacts young people "Generation opportunity" takes flight
• MAINE GOP not alone in trying to lower voter turnout
• Congrats to the AWESOME 2011 40 leaders under 40 from the NLC
• Recession Grads: Judggling a tough job market and student loans
• Revolutionizing student loans in poverty-stricken countries
• Class-action law suit alleges fraud at Henrico for profit school
• Teachers may lose raises for masters degrees. Typically people who have masters degrees would go into teaching positions if they got a bump in pay for their advanced degree. Because the economy is so tough and funding for schools is being cut - those students who are getting their advanced degree while waiting out the economic crisis/downfall/depression might not be able to make the same extra bank if they "fall back" on a teaching gig.

• New Grads adapt to Job Market Realities is a piece Judy Woodruff posts for PBS's New Hour.
  

  "Reports have shown that for the past couple years that they have joined the older generation in taking a hit. A large number have moved back home with their parents after graduation; another large percentage have had to settle for lower paying jobs, or for jobs in fields outside their area of main interest. It’s too early to know what this means for their confidence in the future, but studies show that getting a late start on the job of one’s choice - and starting at a lower salary level - often means lower total earnings over the course of a career because of the difficulty in playing catch-up.

  There’s also the question commonly asked of Baby Boomers: do you think your children and their generation will do as well as you have? Lately, the answer has been “no” - not surprising given the weakness of the recovery. But I found this pessimistic view may have deeper roots than the current economy: A national poll reported by NBC News in July 2006, well before the financial collapse, reported that nearly two-thirds of American adults that year didn’t believe life for their children's generation would be better than it had been for them." Go read the rest

• Study saying debt is "rewarding" to youth high on BS radar. If you missed it yesterday - the study that everyone is reporting on is 1. out of date and 2. not reflective on anxieties youth face when they're not economically stable. Don't be fooled...
• SWAT Team raid for "unpaid student loans" not the full story but fools journalists across the country. We weren't the only ones who got owned. The Department of Education released a statement saying that they don't issue warrants for defaulted student loans but instead for criminal actions. Since this is an ongoing criminal investigation ... Ed can't comment further. Until then loads of our people will sleep knowing that The Man isn't going to break down the door for student loan payments.

Actually one of the best commentaries on this whole topics has come form Cryn Johannsen - which I encourage you to read.

• Students crushed by high interest rates. Doesn't make the anxieties any better that a SWAT team won't come repelling through the windows all Mission Impossible style...

  For example ... did you know that if you can't pay your student loan and you're under a mountain of debt and you file for bankruptcy that it doesn't matter you still have to pay your student loan back?

  "Rules put in place about 13 years ago under changes to the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act put student debt on par with unpaid child support and court settlements based on crimes you may have committed.

  "They are putting student loans up there with criminal behaviour,” says Carleton University professor Saul Schwartz, who has studied the issue for years and says about 12% to 15% of student loans will never get repaid. That’s about double the rate of the general population, he says.

  It’s no easy route for a student to go bankrupt because of changes to the act in 1998. Up until then, student debt was no different from any other kind of debt and completely forgiven once there was a bankruptcy discharge.

  But the act was changed to say you had to wait 10 years after leaving school before you could apply to have your student debt forgiven. That was lowered to seven years in 2008.

  "There is no good reason why student loans should be treated differently than any other loan," says Prof. Schwartz, adding that even taxes are forgiven by the government in a bankruptcy. "That’s the basic point that should be made.”

• On a lighter note... Study: Minority youth spend more than half their day consuming media.
  

  "Asian and Hispanic youth are particularly avid social networkers"

  I'm sure there's a joke I could make about our fellow FM blogger Karlo on here, but I'm too busy consuming media to think about it...

• Risky Behaviors more common among LGB youth. Risky behaviors include such things as Glee, excessive media consumption, attraction to flair, and obviously sarcasm. Kidding... Risky behaviors are categorized by the CDC below. The piece doesn't include the extent to which these so called "risky" behaviors are done by non-LGB students. (editor note: The CDC did have numbers (PDF) - but this article doesn't - lame.
  

  "
  1. behaviors that contribute to unintentional injuries
  2. behaviors that contribute to violence
  3. behaviors related to attempted suicide
  4. tobacco use
  5. alcohol use
  6. other drug use
  7. sexual behaviors
  8. dietary behaviors
  9. physical activity and sedentary behaviors
  10. weight management

  "

• OK back to the money thing... here are some Steps to make good on a defaulted student loan. Might I also suggest selling internal organs - perhaps even a sibling. And if that doesn't work here's another: In Student Loan hell? Here's how to get out
• Interest rates on student loans: when things get fishy. Everyone is out to get you. No seriously... everyone is out to get you... but primarily for your money. The Christian Science Monitor tells us:
  

  Interest rates can change when consolidating private and subsidized loans. Be sure to have the consolidation and the interest rates documented.

• For profit colleges actively manage stats to keep federal dollars flowing, internal documents show. See.. I told you everyone is out to get your money.... And these guys will do whatever it takes to make sure they get students' money and federal tax dollars.
• Florida voting systems suck for youth. Congratulations Florida!!! You still suck! Stay tuned for Craig's full report on Rock the Vote's ranking of of states and their voting systems impact on young voters.
• And I saved the best for last!! How the Next US Economy is Already Failing
  

  "Indeed, things might look a hell of a lot worse for everybody, precisely because of the inequity that remains baked in. Stokely Baksh’s infographic showed last week that today’s graduates stride into a job market that is smaller than it has been in generations. Meanwhile, youth unemployment is higher than it’s been since economists began tracking it, with black and Latino young people of all education levels lagging far behind whites in their ability to get a job. The next generation, in all its diversity, faces a difficult future.

  I explored that difficult future in more depth in a special section of this month’s National Journal, which focuses on “The Next Economy.” In my essay, I explain that, regardless of the Millennials’ diversity, they exist inside an economy that continues to disadvantage people of color. I write,

  The pressing question, however, is how many of these young people will truly join the middle class. Will they reap the benefits of their parents’ labor and achieve an economic security that enables them to buy homes, start businesses, and take road trips even with gasoline at $4 a gallon? This is where the complexities of America’s racial politics, past and present, cloud the way."

Have a good day everybody....

Hey, my name is Ryan Jackson, and I write the mildly unhinged political diatribe/blog ChugBleach. FutureMajority gave me my first readership boost, allowing me to cavort around the internet like a violence mad Viking prophet, and being given the chance to write here is both an honor and a privilege.

…

I’ve been rolling this article around in my mind for the last four or so days, trying to put it into the full context of total coverage/final wisdom. Written by Lindsay Beyerstein, it details the Edwards attempt to hire her into what would finally be the doomed position of Campaign Blogger, and well:

It was already dark and drizzling when Bob and I left the church. Bob was telling me how John Edwards was going to be a different kind of candidate. We, a new generation of Internet-savvy activists, had finally come of age. We were going to help Edwards run a campaign that was totally outside the Beltway.

…

“I’m probably not … the person you want,” I said, finally. “I mean, I’m on the record saying that abortion is good and that all drugs should be legalized, including heroin. Don’t you think that might be a little embarrassing for the campaign?”

Bob assured me that my controversial posts weren’t a problem as far as the campaign was concerned. They were familiar with my work. And Bob did seem to know my writing. I didn’t get the impression he was a daily reader, but it was obvious he had been reading the blog for a while.

“That’s you, that’s not John Edwards,” he said.

So, just to throw some questions out there:

Was it pot brownie day at the Edwards campaign for the last two months? “That’s you, that’s not John Edwards.” She was going to be a paid representative of the campaign. She speaks for The Candidate.

“Decentralized campaigns” and giving the movement to the volunteers is probably a big part of the future of politics, but when does it just completely jump the shark? Could it be announcements on Edwards blog about his campaign office inside The Matrix being attacked, and people comparing it to the conspiracy behind 9/11?

Convential wisdom credits a great deal of the success behind the Bush campaigns in 2000 and 2004 to his absolute ability to maintain brutal message discipline. John Edwards spent a full week ignoring the Two Americas to endlessly deny he personally didn’t want to throat punch the pope. Can you really hope to integrate bloggers into a modern campaign without somebody accidentally saying what they really feel about what’s going on, and the candidate having to deny it for the next week?

Just some thoughts going forward, as we try to break down the Evil Monolithic Political Party Machine using nothing but pluck, Fervent Youthful Enthusiasm, and Facebook.

Three stories about Millenials in politics, and one piece of advice in this week's news roundup.

• Chris Bowers at MyDD is promoting a diary by his former student David Slavick, who is running to be the Democratic State Representative for Pennsylvania's rural 109th district.

  The Push for Progress in Central PA: The Front Lines of '08

  Despite the fact that our campaign fund is dwarfed by the $134,685 raised by incumbent Millard in 2004, we have actually raised more money from local donors than he has in his entire career. This fact is a great indicator of our chances in this race, given that many people in Columbia County have undergone great hardship this year and do not have much disposable income, giving greater symbolic weight to their contributions.

  With less than 80 days, our hard in this campaign work is paying off. The grassroots has invigorated our local party and we are ready for the fight in 2008. We are bringing our message of hope, vision, and progress to all parts of the county, despite the recent national emergency level flooding. We have active volunteers in every precinct in Columbia County. Our county party has made great strides in recent months, nearly doubling the ranks of Democratic committee people, and each of the new committee members embrace a progressive vision for America. Our vision for a better Pennsylvania is spreading like a prairie fire.

  David is a 27 year-old alumnus of Pittsburgh Law - which makes him a "cusp" millenial (like those of us that run this site).

• Campus Progress is running a story this week about college students who graduate and run for office in their university towns. The piece mostly focuses on 20-somethings running for legislative and city council positions, but also includes an aside about students and graduates running for municipal positions such as elections judges. Almost two dozen such graduates ran in Philadelphia municipal elections last year, according to The Daily Pennsylvanian (UPenn's student paper).
  

  Nineteen Penn students are now elected Philadelphia officials, according to initial figures from Tuesday's municipal elections.

  As a result, they will be in charge of making sure elections run smoothly in the coming years.

  Of these students, six Democrats and one Republican will serve as judges of elections.

  Equally important - student involvement in the elections, as well as polling locations within walking distance of campus, all improved voter turnout for an off year among Philly students.

After the jump - bad experiences among the college dems, and friendly advice for campaigning in hostile territory

When we started this blog, one of my ideas was to aggregate some of the best (or worst) stories on young voter turnout, youth organizations, and culture and politics that run in the news each week. That hasn't happened over the last couple months - a situation I hope to change. On that note, here's a few interesting items from the last week, as well as a couple big items from the summer that I missed.

• AlterNet interviews punk band Rise Against frontman Tim McIlrath about punk and politics. The article focuses on the ability of The Warped Tour to present the band - and its political views - to new audiences. In the last 3 years, the Warped Tour - with a heavy presence from MFA and Punkvoter - has become one of the premier cultural venues for introducing young voters to progressive political ideas.
• Russell Simmons is sticking his political foot in his mouth again. Simmons (somewhat) famously gave Rockefeller Drug activists the shaft a few years back. Now, the founder of the Hip Hop Summit Action Network is supporting a Republican for Senate in Maryland. Ken Mehlmen must be thrilled. I pose this question to Simmons - how does helping the Republicans maintain control of the Senate advance a progressive agenda on civil rights, the drug war, and any number of topics?
• Fox News (surprisingly) runs a semi-decent story about youth turnout and efforts by GOTV groups to get more young voters to participate in elections. Only problem with the story is that it focuses on the efforts of non partisan groups to register voters. So what's wrong with it?
  1. For 10 years non partisan groups like Rock the Vote registered millions of new voters even as voter turnout declined. It wasn't until 2004 - when partisan GOTV groups started to spring up - that turnout rose. This article makes no mention of that.
  2. Getting young voters to turn out in greater numbers and with greater consistency will require a lot more than registration. It will require a new culture of participation springing up at the local level.
• Speaking of Rock the Vote - while I have my doubts about its effectiveness at doing more than registering voters (ie, not sure how great they are at turning out voters), kudos to this Rock the Vote organizer for writing - and getting published - this letter to the editor. More groups should be utilizing this tactic - in cultural zines, and local and campus publications - to raise their profile and correct distorted and factually incorrect media narratives.
• Finally, the Chatham County Democrats voted to fund their county's Young Democrats to help recruit new members.

Big summer items after the jump . . .