According to a researcher from the Economic Innovation Group (EIG), young people in the United States are not feeling the effects of the so-called “robust” economy we’ve supposedly been privy to. While we are constantly told the economy and the job market have boomed in the post-financial crisis period, Americans are struggling to find stability.
EIG says that a path to progress poses a “catch 22” situation for those who even attempt to bridge the gap. Many will go to college only to be burdened by a low paying job and massive student loan debt that cripples their earning power. This creates an even worse situation for many living in the “distressed” communities, which EIG says are “increasingly rural.”
“Young people are kind of trapped in debt in distressed communities,” EIG Research Director Kenan Fikri told Yahoo Finance. “And they don’t really have a pathway to get out of their situation and be able to afford moving to a prosperous metropolitan area to try to turn the situation around. So it’s really in a catch-22 that individuals who are trying to advance themselves from these communities end up landing.”
In an EIG report, originally published back in October of 2018, researchers looked at around 25,800 zip codes, which is about 99% of the U.S. population, and compared two periods: 2007 to 2011, and 2012 to 2016. One of the primary reasons for the distressed communities being left behind, researchers found, was a lack of educational attainment.
According to Yahoo Finance, “distress” (for the purpose of this study) was defined through seven metrics: educational attainment, housing vacancy, unemployment levels, poverty rate, median income, the change in the number of jobs, and in business establishments. “It’s really troubling, we did a casual overlay of the [Distressed Communities Index] map with that of where student debt is most burdensome and found that delinquency rates are higher in places where economic opportunity is worse,” Fikri said.
Keith Orejel, an assistant professor at Wilmington College who studies rural communities, told Yahoo Finance that the “plight of rural America as much more structural. When one gets down to brass tacks, at the end of the day, rural areas never recovered from the Great Recession. If you actually look at the data, it is quite shocking. Urban and metropolitan employment today is well above what it was prior to the Great Recession, whereas total employment in nonmetropolitan areas is still below what it was prior to the Great Recession. And there is clearly just an absence of job opportunities in the countryside that is making these sort of economically unappealing places to live.”
Orejel added that the decline of the manufacturing industry is also playing a role in impoverishing those straggling in the middle class. Manufacturing jobs that were available in rural areas and created jobs that retained young people served as a “staple of middle-class jobs in the countryside have just been utterly devastated.”
https://www.shtfplan.com/headline-news/a-chinese-factory-slave-explains-why-manufacturing-jobs-are-never-coming-back-to-america-no-matter-what-president-trump-says_05012017
The unfortunate reality is that far too many in the United States have not seen any effects of the booming economy the mainstream media raves about. Whether a person lives rurally or not is irrelevant. Large cities in California are bursting with homeless people, so it’s all relative. The reality, however, is that 78% live paycheck to paycheck, and that number will only go up.
In “Ozzy & Harriet” , “Leave It To Beaver” days the typical home was at or just over 1000 sq/ft. The family had one car, one TV and ice cream was a treat not a staple. The closest thing to credit outside a mortgage and car payment was “Lay Away” for Christmas gifts. Much of the debt today is not just self inflicted but its discretionary. Its effect is a modern variation of the old company town and store trapping those into a perpetual hand to mouth existence.
K2,
Your comparison to the company town is exquisitely
accurate. Although today instead of the coal mine, sugar plantation, steel mill, or orchard, the company enslaving them is the is the government.
rellik
With either a willing accomplice, partner or leader in the bankers. I assume this symbiotic relationship depending upon level takes one or more of the above positions by either party.
rellik
All of this was made possible by pure fiat currency. When money has an intrinsic value you treat it as having value making loans to those who have the ability and record of paying. When Uncle Sam bails you out with money from no where, you treat it like an undisciplined kid does; it grows on trees.
Also, there was no microwave, dishwasher, or air conditioning in most homes. People didn’t have 40 pair of shoes and 100’s of pieces of clothing. Gardens and clotheslines were prolific. Food was cooked at home. Restaurants were a rare treat.
Good comment!
h ttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fmO-ziHU_D8
“Debate” American Style: Our Top Orators in Action
Based on what I can translate, from the Ebonics and war drums, the topic is about why disadvantaged people should go to war.
Maybe, a WASP masculinist should like to answer.
Grades and admissions have been dickered-with, on grounds of ‘citizenship’ and social promotion, and I see that we are still inflicting the ninth plank of Marxism upon the suburbs — Combination of agriculture with manufacturing industries; gradual abolition of the distinction between town and country by a more equable distribution of the population over the country.
Integration made public schooling miserable, according to conservative stereotypes, makes the suburbs, living arrangements, and job prospects miserable for meritorious people, without fail.
What you give to one person is taken from another. Choose much more carefully — please, for the love of God.
“THE POOR WILL ALWAYS BE WITH YOU”: Jesus Christ
In Orwell’s 1984, the otherwise useless folks were sent off to fight distant foreign wars….
Most of this damage is self inflicted. Who in their right mind would think a $100,000 student loan debt, a mortgage of $500,000, and a car loan of $40,000 is a good idea? Who are you trying to impress? Do what I did when I was first starting out: I paid cash for everything, shared an apartment with a few other guys, owned a used car that I bought for $500, and paid my tuition in cash with money I earned over the summer. I dined out about 2 times a year on special occasions. I didn’t smoke, get tattoos, or party every weekend. I graduated from college debt free and had a job before the ink on my diploma was dry. It was a crappy job but everyone has to start somewhere. The only thing heavy debt will do for a person is will send you to an early grave.
went into a business today and there was a group of 20s age people with brief cases waiting to see someone and the conversation they were having was so stupid. shit people my age dont talk about. one girl was talking about how her feet smell and the guys were talking about shit from high school. they are aspiring corporate execs from what i can tell. just grown up babies that probably throw fits when shit dont go their way. we are fuckin doomed with these wimpy entitled adult children in charge. i can tell they never done anything difficult. they probably go to starbucks and they all gotta be gay. cant stand young people they are clueless they wouldnt be able to run a fuckin lemonade stand nevermind a fortune 500 company. crazy how well rich people set their kids up.
I remember when cable tv had 12 channels and cost two dollars per month.
In the map the South looks mostly distressed. Ain’t that the truth!
We are debt free. many folks buy stuff they cant afford because they believe they deserve those things
No, it’s not the truth. The South is now the economic engine of the country. It shows “distressed” because of the prevalence of two groups of “disadvantaged” yoots – blacks and Hispanics. They skew the results badly.
…….and found that delinquency rates are higher in places where economic opportunity is worse,” Fikri said.
OMG. REALLY? This is obvious. How much did this study cost? Taxpayer funded?
I can/will spew out this kind of info for half the money !!!
If you live in the Countryside and you want to work for a big corporation, you commute.
When I lived in the suburbs, I commuted to “the city” because they paid more.
If college students want free tuition, they should vote to end foreign aid.
We send Israel our money and Israel has free college. Or, move to Israel if you can pass the DNA test. Israel is an ethno State. You have got to be the right ethnicity.
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