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How Capitalism Is Cheating Young Americans
Jul 28, 2014
Our country's wealthy white once-idealistic baby boomer generation has cheated those of you entering the working world. A small percentage of us have taken almost all the new wealth since the recession. Our Silicon Valley CEOs have placated you with overpriced technological toys that are the result of decades of American productivity, but which have mainly profited the elite members of their industries.
Although none of us in the older generations can speak for you, we can help you research the facts. And the facts are painfully clear.
1. You Have Very Little Savings to Pay Your Massive Debts
A recent report claims that median net worth for the millennial generation (18 to 35 years old) has risen from $9,000 to $32,000 since 2007, and that their median income is $47,000.
Most other sources disagree. A report from the Russell Sage Foundation concludes that all American households have lost wealth since 2007. Other evidence shows that about 90% of us lost wealth in the past five years, while the richest - and generally older - 5% made millions. Median income, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, is only about $35,000 for 25- to 34-year-olds, and just $25,000 for 20- to 24-year-olds.
Debt is apparently the difference, and the unrelenting burden, for college-educated young people. Based on Pew research, college-educated student debtors have twice as much debt as income. And they have only one-seventh the net worth of college-educated adults who have no student debt obligations.
2. You're Being Cheated out of the Opportunity to Begin Your Own Households
As you were entering the working world after the recession, almost 60 percent of the new jobs were low-income ($7.69 to $13.83 per hour). The number of college grads working for minimum wage doubled in just five years.
As a result, many of you are forced to live with your parents. In just one generation, the percentage of stay-at-home young adults has risen from 11 percent to almost 24 percent. And more disturbingly, student homelessness increased by 10 percent in just one year.
3. Corporations are Hoarding Money that Could Pay for Your Jobs
Corporations more than doubled their profits and halved their taxes from 2000 to 2012.
What have they been doing with all that money? Hoarding it, mostly. David Cay Johnston estimated that in 2013 American businesses held almost $7.9 trillion of liquid assets worldwide. And here's a bigger insult: According to the Wall Street Journal, for some of our largest corporations over 75 percent of the cash owned by foreign subsidiaries is kept "at U.S. banks, held in U.S. dollars or parked in U.S. government and corporate securities."
So they're using taxpayer money to protect the assets that they're avoiding taxes on.
Corporations are also spending trillions of dollars on stock buybacks, which use potential research and development money to pump up the prices of executive stock options. Apple, one of the buyback leaders, and the nation's biggest tax avoider, defended its outsourcing, saying "We shouldn't be criticized for using Chinese workers. The U.S. has stopped producing people with the skills we need."
Meanwhile, corporations continue to cut jobs, with the computer industry among the worst offenders at the start of 2014. Microsoft just announced the deepest cuts in the firm's 39-year history. AT&T has reduced its workforce by 22 percent in the last seven years. Verizon is shutting down customer service centers. Apple has a more efficient way of undermining workers, earning $400,000 profit per employee while paying most of their store workers $12 to $14 per hour.
4. The Business Media Mocks You
With supreme condescension, the media looks down at a struggling class of young Americans and proclaims:
---The good news is that information technology provides the iPod/Facebook generation with the means to find work and create careers.. --Michael Barone, the Washington Examiner
---A lot of people...can still earn a good living now by building their own branded reputations.. --Thomas Friedman, the New York Times
---The ability to so take photographs makes [people] richer. --Forbes
To the out-of-touch super-rich capitalists, those of you in the newest working generation thrive on social networking, good reputations, and picture-taking. A nice lifestyle, as long as you don't have to support yourselves or your families.
An Urgent Message From Our Co-Founder
Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It's never been this bad out there. And it's never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed, the threats we face are intensifying. We need your support now more than ever. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Will you donate now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? —Craig Brown, Co-founder |
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
Paul Buchheit
Paul Buchheit is an advocate for social and economic justice, and the author of numerous papers on economic inequality and cognitive science. He was recently named one of 300 Living Peace and Justice Leaders and Models. He is the author of "American Wars: Illusions and Realities" (2008) and "Disposable Americans: Extreme Capitalism and the Case for a Guaranteed Income" (2017). Contact email: paul (at) youdeservefacts.org.
Our country's wealthy white once-idealistic baby boomer generation has cheated those of you entering the working world. A small percentage of us have taken almost all the new wealth since the recession. Our Silicon Valley CEOs have placated you with overpriced technological toys that are the result of decades of American productivity, but which have mainly profited the elite members of their industries.
Although none of us in the older generations can speak for you, we can help you research the facts. And the facts are painfully clear.
1. You Have Very Little Savings to Pay Your Massive Debts
A recent report claims that median net worth for the millennial generation (18 to 35 years old) has risen from $9,000 to $32,000 since 2007, and that their median income is $47,000.
Most other sources disagree. A report from the Russell Sage Foundation concludes that all American households have lost wealth since 2007. Other evidence shows that about 90% of us lost wealth in the past five years, while the richest - and generally older - 5% made millions. Median income, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, is only about $35,000 for 25- to 34-year-olds, and just $25,000 for 20- to 24-year-olds.
Debt is apparently the difference, and the unrelenting burden, for college-educated young people. Based on Pew research, college-educated student debtors have twice as much debt as income. And they have only one-seventh the net worth of college-educated adults who have no student debt obligations.
2. You're Being Cheated out of the Opportunity to Begin Your Own Households
As you were entering the working world after the recession, almost 60 percent of the new jobs were low-income ($7.69 to $13.83 per hour). The number of college grads working for minimum wage doubled in just five years.
As a result, many of you are forced to live with your parents. In just one generation, the percentage of stay-at-home young adults has risen from 11 percent to almost 24 percent. And more disturbingly, student homelessness increased by 10 percent in just one year.
3. Corporations are Hoarding Money that Could Pay for Your Jobs
Corporations more than doubled their profits and halved their taxes from 2000 to 2012.
What have they been doing with all that money? Hoarding it, mostly. David Cay Johnston estimated that in 2013 American businesses held almost $7.9 trillion of liquid assets worldwide. And here's a bigger insult: According to the Wall Street Journal, for some of our largest corporations over 75 percent of the cash owned by foreign subsidiaries is kept "at U.S. banks, held in U.S. dollars or parked in U.S. government and corporate securities."
So they're using taxpayer money to protect the assets that they're avoiding taxes on.
Corporations are also spending trillions of dollars on stock buybacks, which use potential research and development money to pump up the prices of executive stock options. Apple, one of the buyback leaders, and the nation's biggest tax avoider, defended its outsourcing, saying "We shouldn't be criticized for using Chinese workers. The U.S. has stopped producing people with the skills we need."
Meanwhile, corporations continue to cut jobs, with the computer industry among the worst offenders at the start of 2014. Microsoft just announced the deepest cuts in the firm's 39-year history. AT&T has reduced its workforce by 22 percent in the last seven years. Verizon is shutting down customer service centers. Apple has a more efficient way of undermining workers, earning $400,000 profit per employee while paying most of their store workers $12 to $14 per hour.
4. The Business Media Mocks You
With supreme condescension, the media looks down at a struggling class of young Americans and proclaims:
---The good news is that information technology provides the iPod/Facebook generation with the means to find work and create careers.. --Michael Barone, the Washington Examiner
---A lot of people...can still earn a good living now by building their own branded reputations.. --Thomas Friedman, the New York Times
---The ability to so take photographs makes [people] richer. --Forbes
To the out-of-touch super-rich capitalists, those of you in the newest working generation thrive on social networking, good reputations, and picture-taking. A nice lifestyle, as long as you don't have to support yourselves or your families.
Paul Buchheit
Paul Buchheit is an advocate for social and economic justice, and the author of numerous papers on economic inequality and cognitive science. He was recently named one of 300 Living Peace and Justice Leaders and Models. He is the author of "American Wars: Illusions and Realities" (2008) and "Disposable Americans: Extreme Capitalism and the Case for a Guaranteed Income" (2017). Contact email: paul (at) youdeservefacts.org.
Our country's wealthy white once-idealistic baby boomer generation has cheated those of you entering the working world. A small percentage of us have taken almost all the new wealth since the recession. Our Silicon Valley CEOs have placated you with overpriced technological toys that are the result of decades of American productivity, but which have mainly profited the elite members of their industries.
Although none of us in the older generations can speak for you, we can help you research the facts. And the facts are painfully clear.
1. You Have Very Little Savings to Pay Your Massive Debts
A recent report claims that median net worth for the millennial generation (18 to 35 years old) has risen from $9,000 to $32,000 since 2007, and that their median income is $47,000.
Most other sources disagree. A report from the Russell Sage Foundation concludes that all American households have lost wealth since 2007. Other evidence shows that about 90% of us lost wealth in the past five years, while the richest - and generally older - 5% made millions. Median income, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, is only about $35,000 for 25- to 34-year-olds, and just $25,000 for 20- to 24-year-olds.
Debt is apparently the difference, and the unrelenting burden, for college-educated young people. Based on Pew research, college-educated student debtors have twice as much debt as income. And they have only one-seventh the net worth of college-educated adults who have no student debt obligations.
2. You're Being Cheated out of the Opportunity to Begin Your Own Households
As you were entering the working world after the recession, almost 60 percent of the new jobs were low-income ($7.69 to $13.83 per hour). The number of college grads working for minimum wage doubled in just five years.
As a result, many of you are forced to live with your parents. In just one generation, the percentage of stay-at-home young adults has risen from 11 percent to almost 24 percent. And more disturbingly, student homelessness increased by 10 percent in just one year.
3. Corporations are Hoarding Money that Could Pay for Your Jobs
Corporations more than doubled their profits and halved their taxes from 2000 to 2012.
What have they been doing with all that money? Hoarding it, mostly. David Cay Johnston estimated that in 2013 American businesses held almost $7.9 trillion of liquid assets worldwide. And here's a bigger insult: According to the Wall Street Journal, for some of our largest corporations over 75 percent of the cash owned by foreign subsidiaries is kept "at U.S. banks, held in U.S. dollars or parked in U.S. government and corporate securities."
So they're using taxpayer money to protect the assets that they're avoiding taxes on.
Corporations are also spending trillions of dollars on stock buybacks, which use potential research and development money to pump up the prices of executive stock options. Apple, one of the buyback leaders, and the nation's biggest tax avoider, defended its outsourcing, saying "We shouldn't be criticized for using Chinese workers. The U.S. has stopped producing people with the skills we need."
Meanwhile, corporations continue to cut jobs, with the computer industry among the worst offenders at the start of 2014. Microsoft just announced the deepest cuts in the firm's 39-year history. AT&T has reduced its workforce by 22 percent in the last seven years. Verizon is shutting down customer service centers. Apple has a more efficient way of undermining workers, earning $400,000 profit per employee while paying most of their store workers $12 to $14 per hour.
4. The Business Media Mocks You
With supreme condescension, the media looks down at a struggling class of young Americans and proclaims:
---The good news is that information technology provides the iPod/Facebook generation with the means to find work and create careers.. --Michael Barone, the Washington Examiner
---A lot of people...can still earn a good living now by building their own branded reputations.. --Thomas Friedman, the New York Times
---The ability to so take photographs makes [people] richer. --Forbes
To the out-of-touch super-rich capitalists, those of you in the newest working generation thrive on social networking, good reputations, and picture-taking. A nice lifestyle, as long as you don't have to support yourselves or your families.
We've had enough. The 1% own and operate the corporate media. They are doing everything they can to defend the status quo, squash dissent and protect the wealthy and the powerful. The Common Dreams media model is different. We cover the news that matters to the 99%. Our mission? To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. How? Nonprofit. Independent. Reader-supported. Free to read. Free to republish. Free to share. With no advertising. No paywalls. No selling of your data. Thousands of small donations fund our newsroom and allow us to continue publishing. Can you chip in? We can't do it without you. Thank you.