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The Most Powerful Generation in America
By Russell Simmons and Maya Enista
The vast majority of Americans, including many policymakers at the highest levels of government, are still unaware of one of the most pressing economic issues facing our country. Many may think that everything newsworthy has been covered amidst the media firestorm surrounding foreclosures, banks, bailouts, and the stimulus packages that have consumed news cycle after news cycle in the last several months. Unfortunately, both in the media and among policy-makers, there is one group that has been unceremoniously overlooked.
The Millennial Generation, those born between 1976 and 1996, the heirs to our economic legacy and ultimately the bearers of our economic destiny, are being disproportionately affected by the crisis, but continue to go unnoticed. This is even though they face unemployment at a rate more than 8% higher than the national average, suffer under a crushing average of $27,000 in student loan, $2000 in credit card debt, and a healthcare crisis that leaves 30% of them without any insurance. In addition, as young people enter the workforce, they are being pitted against individuals with much more experience than they have for the same entry level jobs due to recent layoffs, making finding a job exponentially more difficult.
This perfect economic storm will have untold negative impacts if nothing is done by Congress to address these issues now by truly investing in the Millennial Generation.
The good news is that even as young people are being overlooked by the majority of policymakers, they are stepping up to the plate to take control of their own economic destinies. Millennials are on track to be the most civically and politically engaged generation ever.
Just recently Mobilize.org, the Student Association for Voter Empowerment (SAVE), the Roosevelt Institution, and a number of other youth organizations formed the "80 Million Strong for Young American Jobs" coalition, representing the collective voices of millions of Millennials. Its purpose: to give young people the tools they need to engage substantively with policymakers and propose solutions to these problems.
To this end, on Tuesday, 100 Millennials from across the country will convene in Washington, DC to partake in the "80 Million Strong for Young American Jobs" summit, where young people will develop collective solutions and federal legislation aimed at putting young people to work and launching our economy in a new direction. The ideas springing forth from this summit will be both revolutionary and full of promise. However, most impressive is the fact that that they will all be developed and proposed by engaged young people driven to be involved in making the policies that will define their economic futures.
The Millennial legislative agenda resulting from the summit will address several areas where Congress can act now to invest in young people. First, investing in "Mission Critical" jobs and training programs that will utilize new technologies ranging from the emerging green sector to increased online infrastructure and new frontiers in the healthcare industry. Second, creating volunteer-to-career pathways that will provide grants to young people working in unpaid local, state, and federal internships, so that Millennials can gain the experience they need to gain employment while staying afloat financially. And finally, funding programs to provide increased continuing education opportunities for new workers, and legislation that would provide an increased time frame for student loan repayments.
Hopefully, Congress takes heed of the rising chorus of Millennials calling for action in these increasingly important areas. It is time for our policymakers to invest in the generation that will define the future of our country, and in the process, help set America on the path to economic recovery.
Maya Enista is the CEO of Mobilize.org, a grassroots organization of Millennials dedicated to engaging young people in policymaking. Follow 80 Million Strong: twitter.com/@80ms
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I suppose that gender, religion, politics and race aren't enough anymore. Now we can fight over whose generation is the best and whose is the most oppressed.
You're showing your age, don't be so bitter LOL
No... That is hardly the point of his post. I am a part of this generation and I graduated from college 2 years ago. I know a few people with jobs, but unfortunately there are way more (including myself) who are unemployed and have been looking for jobs for almost a year now. I live in San Francisco and every company from GM to Yahoo to Google are laying people off. These experienced and well educated, in most cases, people are now searching for jobs with me and hundreds of thousands of other recent college graduates. As an employer who would you rather have? Recent graduate? or college graduate with possible a post bac degree + work experience? We are at a huge disadvantage. Most people are going back to school because there is no work. But even doing that is hard, because most people are thinking the same thing, making going back to school that much more competetive. Anyways my point is that there IS a problem.
I have to disagree with this article. The hardest work these "Millennials" have ever had to do is lift their Starbucks cup up to their lips while programming their IPod's. Russell has it all wrong, it is the prior generations, specifically Generation X who have to battle with the Millennials for jobs because these companies want to hire them first because they work cheaper. The members of Generation X are stuck between the "Boomers" who have wrecked our economy, and government and refuse to let go, and the "Millennials" who come crashing into the party with no respect and the "entitlement" attitude. So pardon me, if I don't have any sympathy for these spoiled little millennials. Excuse me while I go and play my "tiny violin" for these "Poor Millennials"
Everybody has entitlements. Older generations never stood up and took what should have been theirs. Don't be mad cause you didn't think of it first.
Think about that - actually demanding the government, who we choose, do something for us?
Responsibility to the people who elected them, what a novel idea!
Riiight....Those d@mned Millennials deserve to suffer, for once, and struggle to compete for entry level jobs that Gen X is overqualified for (but need nonetheless) because of their youthful entitlement that somebody, somewhere claims is unique to their generation.
Wow, that's intense. I'm a Gen X as well, but I think it's a bit harsh to be blaming the kids for the behaviors of selfish companies. The Millennials are good people and we should try them with respect.
Not to start a pity party here. But I agree with you as a fellow Gen-Xr (which I define as people born between 1965-1981, so it includes the older Millenials). Xers have gotten the shaft repeatedly - growing up in the divorce-happy 70s and 80s, half of us come from broken homes. We suffered through three major recessions in our adulthood already: 1991, 2001, and now, we've been ignored by the culture at large because of its catering to the Boomers excesses and the Yers numbers. Many of our members have been thrown into the two Iraq conflicts, and we're mostly living in our peak earning years now and will have to deal with the reduced expectations of the current crisis. Plus the baby boom...in their infinate selfishness, will likely bankrupt the country ensuring that =their= retirement is secure at the expense of us and those behind us.
But companies who choose to "go young" with their hirng had better we watchful of unintended consequences of that strategy. By sidelining your more experienced workers to save a buck now you're going to ensure that people that have the money to spend now won't spend it; and the people you're paying less now won't be able to spend it either. I don't see that as much of a strategy for long term success.
The generation gap is real, but solutions have to serve all generations, otherwise we're all in the soup.
While I have to disagree with calling my generation, the Millennial generation, the "most powerful," it is impossible to ignore the writing on the wall which has shown the incredible burden we will have to bear when it comes to fixing the problems in our country.
Fixing those problems will come alongside taking care of our aging, also unemployed parents, supporting our own children, working longer and longer hours, and being saddled with debt from more schooling for ourselves and our own children in order to remain competitive. To disregard these burdens is not only ignorant, but selfish.
Each generation is faced with a great challenge. The challenge for the Millennials will be cleaning up the mess made by the generations which preceded us, but also clearing a path for ourselves after being babied, sheltered, and supported far beyond necessity. This will prove to be a challenge in and of itself for many.
I believe that while many of us are bitter about what has been left behind for us, we will know to not repeat those mistakes. We will heed the example that has been set and do better. Because we can. And because you didn't. We'll know what we went through and we will fight to ensure that our children do not have to grow up to graduate college, saddled with massive debt with no jobs to begin to repay that debt.
We will do better. Not because we are better, but because we'll learn from your mistakes.
Obama, Sotomayor, Palin, Geitner, Summers, Axelrod, and many others who have recently risen to influence are all members of the real "most powerful generation in America": Generation Jones (born 1954-1965, between the Boomers and Generation X). Google Generation Jones, and you’ll see it’s gotten a ton of media attention, and many top commentators from many top publications and networks (Washington Post, Time magazine, NBC, Newsweek, ABC, etc.) now specifically use this term. In fact, the Associated Press' annual Trend Report chose the Rise of Generation Jones as the #1 trend of 2009.
It is important to distinguish between the post-WWII demographic boom in births vs. the cultural generations born during that era. Generations are a function of the common formative experiences of its members, not the fertility rates of its parents. Many experts now believe it breaks down more or less this way:
DEMOGRAPHIC boom in babies: 1946-1964
Baby Boom GENERATION: 1942-1953
Generation Jones: 1954-1965
Generation X: 1966-1978
Here is an op-ed about GenJones as the new generation of leadership in USA TODAY:
http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/news/20090127/column27_st.art.htm
Here's a page with a good overview of recent media interest in GenJones:
http://generationjones.com/2009latest.html
You must be joking.
How tough it is for these people when their biggest concerns are 2000 of credit card debt and school loans. Oh my god, not sure how they make it through the day.
Compare this situation with those faced by generations that faced starving to death, depression era unemployment, fight wars in Europe and Asia, dealing with wars in Korea, Vietnam.
Greatest Generataion?
Try privaledged to be in a generation that has had so much heavy lifting done for them. Indicative of a menatality out there that is far too prevelant.
Nobody is comparing this to the Great Depression or WWII. But the Millennials are the ones who have been hit the hardest in the current situation. They're not whining about it much. They're going back to school, starting their own businesses, traveling the world, volunteering, and getting along as well as they can. But they do have bills to pay and very few available jobs. They are suffering and we should be helping if we can.
Because the eight years of fighting the War on Terror with no end in sight isn't good enough for you? Because the US military is crumbling at the same time that the international order is dissolving and you want us to continue to die and sacrifice to keep it together for you?
How sanctimonious!
It might also occur to your selfishly deranged mind that our parents, the Boomers, economic problems will in the end become ours as well. Social security and medicare isn't enough for a dignified retirement. If too much of our parents 401Ks have been wiped out, we will need to find the money to help them out or else they will retire into poverty.
That's a pretty big responsibility for a group that has pretty much every economic card stacked against us.
Those were problems created by their respective generations.
Problems that the mellenials will solve after 80 years of footing around by your generation.
"The Millennial Generation... are being disproportionately affected..." - I'm a boomer who was forced to back into the job search market in my mid 50's because I was no longer physically capable of doing the job I had been doing. I`m one of the fortunate few who was able to start a new direction at that age. Most of the people I work with are "Millennials". I tell them exactly what you're saying. I tell them I'm glad I'm short and then apologize because the boomers have made such a mess of things. The boomers were going to change the world forever but in the end we turned out to be the biggest conformists of them all.
According to Strauss & Howe's book, "Generations": (great book. along with the sequel, "The Fourth Turning," a must read)
G.I. 1901-1924
Silent 1925-1942
Boom 1943-1960
13th (Gen X) 1961-1981
Millennial 1982-? (it was written in '91)
This seems right to me. I was born in 61 and never felt a part of the boomers (tho we were told we were)... We felt more like the unwanted little brothers and sisters. We literally sat at the kid's table in the 60s. I've always considered myself an early GenX.
I was born in 1977 and I always thought I was the end of Generation X. Am I wrong?
The economy is a mess. The best thing you could do for me is to let me opt out of social security. No one my age actually believes that this money will be there for us when we are seniors, but they keep taking that money anyway. I would like to keep this money in my paycheck and invest it for my future myself.
How come you can opt out of social security for religious reasons, but not for reasonable or logical reasons??
People have been saying this about Social Security for 50 years. I've heard it my whole life, and yet here it is, still making sure the elderly don't have to eat out of garbage cans (like they do in countries without a national retirement plan) and still providing good health care and moderate extended care, should they need it. We must take care of our children and our elderly. Other countries do it and so should we. And by the way, where did you ever hear you could opt out of social security for religious reasons?
I'm so tired of the whining about how hard young people have it today. It's often hard for people to get started, and in an economy like this it is hard on everyone. When I graduated in 81 the unemployment rate was similar to todays but the inflation rate was a staggering 16%. The first house we bought had a 13 1/2% mortgage. That was crushing. But, we learned to scrimp and do without and save. You don't need cable TV, you don't need a nice car, you can shop at resale shops for clothes and furniture, and have fun doing free things like hiking and picnicing instead of going to movies and sports events. Sometimes times are hard and sometimes they're easy. Make the best of both and don't whine about it.
Actually, I don't think you heard me whining at all. I was not complaining about how hard kids have it today. I was suggesting that I would like to control my own financial future, rather than have the government do it for me. Take a look at what they have done with many people's pensions, and you can see why.
We are very careful with our money. We drive an inexpensive car that we paid off early and rarely spend money on entertainment. Not all young people are financially irresponsible.
Our grandparents and (some might argue) our parents, did not know as much or have as much access to personal finance information as we do. I understand that they may need help as they age. However, there is no excuse for people in my generation to not be saving for their own retirement. At what point is that my responsibility instead of the governments?
By the way, I am more than willing to pay taxes for education and parks (even though I don't have children who use them and never will), but beyond that...taking care of your children is a parents responsibility...not the governments.
You CAN opt out of social security for religious reasons.
I was born in 1979, but I seem to have mostly millenial friends, so that's where I fundamentally identify. I suppose we're on that generational border, so it goes both ways. I mean, you can't make these categories hard and fast, there's no real way to do so.
I've always objected to the idea that I'm paying into social security now and am probably not going to be allowed to collect it. But at the same time, any suggestion that we not pay into it is met with outrage by those about to collect, and so we're the ones stuck with a bill of goods, because no one else wants to take the hit.
This decision was made for us by politicians moreso than the average person who is looking forward to drawing their checks, so I largely understand their reasoning without feeling bitter about it, toward them at least.
It would be nice to opt out of it completely, but an impossibility. We're essentially getting robbed, and I think we all know it.
You are a GenXer all right, born between 1964-1980, can tell via that oh so endearing "what about ME" mentality that makes the boomers look generous. (I was born in 1989 btw)
Robbing us blind before we were born wasn't enough eh? Now you want to rob the seniors of their retirement.Yours is the greediest, most self-serving generation of them all to date, what has it every done for anyone other than yourselves?
The boomers may have become greedy, but they us a bunch of stuff first - The Civil Rights movement, women's movement, modern liberalism, the sexual revolution, music, fashion, etc before they turned to "Me"ism.
I think the first thing the Mellinials should do is wrok to get the oppressive students loan legislation repealed in the light of ongoin fiscal crisis that makes it impossible to find good paying jobs. Students should be allowed to declare bankruptcy and get out from under the debt.
What should happen is the higher education system should cut their budget in half all of them. Salary levels for professors have gotten way out of wack just like corporate america. These are instituions of higher learning not companies. Yet thats how many of them are run. The costs and overhead are absurd and w/ projected growth rates in 5-10 yrs 1 year of private (top 50 Universities) will cost you near 50k a year. Thats going to be impossible to support. None of us are making salaries that can afford to sock away that much cash. Our children will be so in debt that they will not be able to start their lives until they are in their 40's. I feel bad for kids entering the college system these days and even worse for those who are graduating this year and the next. They will be competing with people who have multiple years more experience for average pay jobs. Unless you come from a rich background or are a trust fund child, you are not free to volunteer your time for some greater good until the job market gets better.
This is such an exciting time to be a Millennial! We are asserting ourselves, coming to the table to discuss, create, and implement solutions, and play a formative role in building the future we want to live in. I am proud to be associated with 80 Million Strong, and I cannot wait to see the big moves this coalition and movement makes.
(First off, better check your years. You've included a lot of Gen X. Gen Y doesn't start until the early 1980's)
We are Gen Y. The Milleneals are those born after 1999-the children of the new millenium. The Milleneals actaully scare me a bit. They strike me as really competitive half-computer cyborgs. They are the inheritors of the new globalized job market and most of them will do well.
As for us, we think that problems should be solved collectively and that they always can be. Comparitively to the other generations, we are a bunch of sissys. But we get things done together and that's just we need right now. It's the zeitgeist working I suppose.
Of course we are ignored. The oldest of us is not 30. That's not much political or economic clout. Student protests are generally regarded to be fringe movements.
I think the problems of teenagers are equally important but that they are really the invisible people. Their civil liberities are constantly infringed upon (locker searches, drug testing, strip searches, city curfews restrictions of their freedom of speech and right to gather, ect), an unfair justice system imprisons large portions of them, they aren't safe at school and aren't educated at school, homelessness, their right in a divorce. These problems are always framed as someone elses problem-the city, the parent-never the teenager themselves.
I have to agree here. Milllenials do not encompass those born back as far as 1976-probably 1990 even. We are generation Y. Now while I agree millenials will play an important part of our economic society in the coming decades it needs to be noted that this generation is ill prepared for the harsh realities of the workplace. I remember a very specific training my previous employer had about how to work with this group of people(and just for information I'm 30 myself). I kid not when it said that they need to have their hand held and provided consistent praise or risk having them turn off and disassociate from their job like a child. There is something to be said in this statement, while not true of all millenials, this generation is incredibly spoiled and materialistic. Some do have lofty goals and are civic minded but they are also one of the worst "me" generations in decades. The sense of entitlement propogated by their parents inability to let their children fidn their own way is staggering. They are completely ill equipped to handle any form of criticism because they have been shielded from negative feedback most if not all of their lives. On a plus side, they are very technological and creative. Hopefully they can utilize these skills to compensate for the harsh realities of the workplace.
Please, guys. The whole generation thing is a bit of a misnomer created by marketers and the press. It is always easiest to label a large, diverse group and act as though they think as one instead of dealing with the messiness of many different and opposing opinions. We all exist as part of a continuum. It became clear, after the "baby boomers" were labeled and compartmentalized, that those born at the front end of the generation had totally different experiences than those born at the back end. The generation wasn't as easily defined as marketers and politicians had hoped.
There are more differences within the generations than between them. If you are born two years later than somebody else who is called a Generation Xer, are you really all that different from them. And really, as a human being, are you all that different from any other human? This whole idea of defining people simply based on what decade they were born in is ludicrous. The marketers and politicians keep trying to squeeze you into their pre-defined boxes, don't let them do it. And stop doing it to others.
The professionals disagree with your naming conventions. Gen Y and the Millennials are different names for the same group, those who came of age near the change of the millennium. Those born after 1999 are usually referred to as children.
Other than that, though, you're right on. Your generation has paid the price for the paranoia and selfishness of your elders. But I have a lot of faith in your ability to overcome these issues. In general, Gen Y is a creative and socially responsible group. The world will be safe in your hands.
Calling Gen Y "Millennials" is popular in pop PR and marketing because it sounds cooler. That doesn't make it correct.
@ smileatfear
And children are still part of a generation even though they're still children. As you said generations were invented by marketers and children influence the buying patterns of their parents.
If generations were so useless, then why would they be used? Clearly peoples' individual personalities is also important, but do you seriously think that the way people act and think about themselves hasn't changed over the past century? Have you read a Victorian novel lately? Can you imagine someone acting like a character in one of those?
Also a "me" generation is one where the people think about themselves. Gen-Y has grown up to value cooperative action. We work in groups in a democratic style. We value our role in a company and have expectations that the role will be valued on an equal footing with others. That's very different from the ambitious and indivdualist Gen X. This is often misinterpreted that we have to be told everything and if we are criticized or not told we're great!. We are high maintenence, but the "me" generation, no.
The Millennial Generation can thank the current occupant of the White House for their future economic woes. His failed 'stimulus' plan saddled them with over $1 trillion in debt, plus interest.
Yeah, because 8 years of Bush policies has nothing to do with it, right? We grew up under Bush and saw firsthand what he did to our country. Don't think you can deflect blame onto Obama.
Of course the good news for the US, bad news for those who believe as you do, is that they are quite adept at seeing thru partisan spin. I don't think the Millennial Generation is quite as confused as you about what and who will cause their future economic woes.
Bush took a huge surplus, handed to him by the first baby boomer to serve as president, and he squandered it. Just like he squandered the good will of other nations that President Clinton had also bequithed him. Shame on you for trying to blame our current President for our previous president's misdeeds. And shame on you also, for continuing the neocon attempt to divide Americans against each other. The generations should be looking out for each other, not be pitted against each other. We are all Americans.
Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.
That's the only response THAT post deserves.
While they might be the most politically engaged generation, they are also the most politically polarized generation. The idea of working together is foreign, they were raised with "Ignore the other side, force your agenda" politics of Reagan and Gingrich. When they, technically my (I was born in 1976) generation takes power, I fear for the whole system to collapse. I have learned the beauty of compromize, most of those with me have not.
I haven't seen this in my daughter and her friends. They are community-minded, generous people. They know that people have different needs, and they're willing to share. Can I suggest that it might be healthy for you to find a nicer group of people to be around?
Actually, that's an inaccurate assumption. If anything, we've learned to work harder at working together BECAUSE we've grown up seeing how futile and dangerous it is to play politics like Reagan and Gingrich. Why do you think the youth vote was overwhelmingly for Obama instead of Hillary?
I like the term we generation over millennial, it's more inclusive, but I don't care what they call themselves. My advice to them is this: Do not let the authoritatian types tell you what to do. People that want leadership positions shouldn't have them.
P.S.
My generation doesn't have a name.
We are all on a continuum and this idea of naming and defining each generation is a marketing too. Ignore it.
Generation Y or the "Millennials" will be the first generation in a long time to suffer a decline in their standard of living compared to that of their parents.
It's not a culture war, it's just an observation. Of course, the other generation is going to complain about not getting their raise on time. But spare some sympathy for a generation that is never going to see a raise--only steeper declines and more retirees to support.
And this is the crux of the matter. I was born in 1977 and I am unemployed. I went to school and got a good education in something that I should have been able to support me, but did it happen? No.
People graduating from my college with my degree make more than I did before I was laid off. Every time I would ask for a raise, they would tell me how lucky I was to have a job. I am on unemployment and I am lucky in that I do have parents who do make enough to help out occasionally. Do I ever see myself doing better than my parents? Not unless I marry well. It sickens me that I went to school to avoid that fate and it's all that's left to me now. I'm too old and not pretty enough to be a trophy wife, so I'm screwed.
Having been born in 1963, I'm still not entirely sure whether I'm a baby-boomer or generation X. I prefer the latter, or more accurately, I prefer not to be included in the former.
The boomers have been throwing a collective tantrum for the last forty years and have brought this country close to ruin at least once per decade with their excesses and self indulgence. Of course there are exceptions, but as a rule the baby boomers have been a colossal pain in the a s s. What started as a idealistic anti-war movement and cultural enlightenment was squandered - first on drugs and disco, then on junk bonds, corporate megalomania, and unbridled greed.
I see the millennials as far more level-headed and practical. They possess a more creative and cooperative spirit that makes me far more optimistic than most.
Yes, the country is a mess, but the Great Depression forged the Greatest Generation. The millennials may develop the same strength of character that comes from adversity.
In the meantime, baby boomers, please go away.
1963 is a cusp year. Most demographers would now say it is Generation X. President Obama born 1961 is considered GenX. It is a small generation, about 14 or 15 years long. It seems like they
are still figuring out where Generation Y begins and ends (1977-2000? or 1980-2002?) Either way we were really sandwiched in there between a big boom and a big blip. I have heard there is a movement to carve out 1954 to 1964 and call it Generation Jones because it was actually a unique period.
The big thing that differentiated Obama in a generational sense from his predecessors was that when the inevitable question that has dominated politics in spurts between 1968 to 2008 came up ("What were you doing Vietnam?") he was able to say, "Learning to ride a bicycle."
Thank god for it. Free at last.
I have to admit that I think the cultural civil war and identity crises that the boomers have been having since the late 1960's have soured me on their mode of leadership. They're the ones that adopted the McNamara-style management paradigm, where numbers dominate and people count for nothing, and run the businesses, they're the ones who decided to bring the polarization of politics to the fore, as an aftershock of their political coming of age, and frankly, they're the ones that put us in the deep stuff in foreign policy with a succession of neoconservative nonsense as some sort of attempt to measure up to their fathers, note all the World War II excuses for going to war in the Middle East, and getting it terribly, terribly wrong.
But rather than examine these things with satisfaction, it's much better to learn from them; know where the mistakes are and avoid them. Blame alone never solves anything. We have to draw lessons from what we find.
Most demographers certainly do not say that 1963 is a GenX birth year; the vast majority of experts begin GenX in the mid-1960s (usually 1965/1966). And virtually no demographers or experts anywhere have said that Obama is a GenXer. By contrast, a long list of experts and pundits have said that Obama is part of Generation Jones. This 5 minute video is well worth watching; its got a bunch of top pundits discussing Obama's identity as a GenJoneser: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Ta_Du5K0jk
I was born in 1961 and I have heard out generation called Generation Jones too..whatever I am just thrilled to not be a boomer.
Sad you've bought into the whole marketing strategy of name and dismiss each other. It's a way of turning Americans against each other so we are all more easily manipulated. I realize you are still young and inexperienced, but please mature a little. Every person is unique and not defined by their generation. Really, very sad commentary bltmm. Lets the marketers know they are succeeding.
Wow - Old people go off and die somewhere. Nice attitude.
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