Things are getting better... but for us?

Today while listening to the radio, a talk show host made mention of how he feels things (the economy) are getting better. Who are they getting better for? Let me tell you, it is not us young people. While the stock market has continued to climb, a good sign, it does little to change the current employment rates, which should continue to climb until at least the later half of this year. What does the recent increase in the stock market actually mean? I hate to sound cynical, but in reality, not much. If you look back to the beginning of this recession, you see similar rallies that only left us in much larger down swings then before. While I don't believe this will happen, it might. The housing market, and related banks, may take another huge hit as unemployment leads us to more home foreclosures. Banks that already have been battered may see new losses. Going back to my point I made before, unemployment is the largest problem facing us young people. The more people that are laid off and the less jobs there are, the less chances there are for people graduating from college/grad school who have little to know work experience. A friend of mine made a comment to me recently about how we (young people) were in demand because companies could pay us less. Well here is a news flash, the 30 year old who just bought a house and has a kid, is going to take any job he can get to pay the bills. They are not going to scoff at a 40k job if they used to make 50k. 

 

So things are bad, what can be done? They say necessity is the mother of invention. I believe our generation needs to get thinking how we can make money. Notice I didn't say get a job. An increasing number of us do not have jobs. That means we have some extra free time. Let’s start getting creative. Our generation needs to make its mark, as the baby boomers did with the computer and the x'ers did with the internet (sorry Al Gore).  Let’s get out there and start making up something new because realistically, the same old same sold isn't going to cut it especially when it's ceasing to exist.