Unlike his fictional counterpart, this Pied Piper is real. He's Wall Street, he's the government - and he's us.
Teenaged (and twentysomething) Wasteland
The unemployment situation seems unrelentingly grim for young Americans. The jobless rate rose in 28 of 50 states last month. They're entering their working years with a 25% unemployment rate, and the figues are much worse for minority communities. What's more, studies show that a young person's lifetime earnings will be affected by what she or he earns in the first few years of working life.
There was a time when young people could find work. And they didn't just have jobs - they had possibilities. Homes, cars, and fuel were affordable. They have choices, too -- about where to live, what kinds of careers to pursue, and what kind of future they wanted for themselves.
When it came to artistic endeavors - literature, music, theater, film, and visual arts - careers were always difficult, open only to the most talented, the hardest working, and the luckiest. But at least previous generations had opportunities. Today the arts have been subjected to decades of withering contempt, along with lost revenue as traditional media outlets failed to adapt to the Internet and other new technologies.
It is, in the words of an old punk band called the Adverts, "no time to be 21."
A Build-It-Yourself Future
These are daunting problems, but they have solutions. Our six-point plan is ambitious, but we do "ambitious" in this country. We did it with the Works Progress Administration in the 1930's and we can do it again. Here's how.
#1: Rebuild Our Infrastructure
Let's hire young people to work side-by-side with older and more experienced workers. Together, the generations can rebuild our roads, bridges, highways, and schools. As they do, younger people will learn new skills from their older colleagues. Older workers who have survived the bruising experience of long-term unemployment will feel the pride and satisfaction that comes from passing on your skills to others.
And the money they both spend will stimulate a struggling economy and get in back on a growth path. That paves the way for a future where those younger workers' new skills will continue to be in demand.
#2: Reinvigorate Our 'Brain Resources'
Too often bright young people ignore or abandon certain professions because there is no clear career path, or because academic life seems too insecure in a nation that's cutting academic jobs and pay - even, paradoxically, as tuition costs soar.
The academic life is vital to a health country. It's a way to germinate ideas that are clear paths to new economic growth -- ideas in computer programming, telecommunications, mathematics, materials science, and dozens of other fields.
But it's also a place to explore ideas that don't have obvious commercial benefit. Some of them will, eventually, in unexpected ways. (Some sociological theories about social networking come to mind.) But others never will. They're simply ways to make us brighter, more creative, and more well-rounded as a people. We'll need those qualities as we face an increasingly uncertain future.
#3: Create the Businesses (and Industries) of Tomorrow
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
