Paul Krugman: Wasting Our Minds

Wasting Our Minds
By PAUL KRUGMAN
Published: April 29, 2012

In Spain, the unemployment rate among workers under 25 is more than 50
percent. In Ireland almost a third of the young are unemployed. Here
in America, youth unemployment is "only" 16.5 percent, which is still
terrible — but things could be worse.

And sure enough, many politicians are doing all they can to guarantee
that things will, in fact, get worse. We've been hearing a lot about
the war on women, which is real enough. But there's also a war on the
young, which is just as real even if it's better disguised. And it's
doing immense harm, not just to the young, but to the nation's future.

Let's start with some advice Mitt Romney gave to college students
during an appearance last week. After denouncing President Obama's
"divisiveness," the candidate told his audience, "Take a shot, go for
it, take a risk, get the education, borrow money if you have to from
your parents, start a business."

The first thing you notice here is, of course, the Romney touch — the
distinctive lack of empathy for those who weren't born into affluent
families, who can't rely on the Bank of Mom and Dad to finance their
ambitions. But the rest of the remark is just as bad in its own way.

I mean, "get the education"? And pay for it how? Tuition at public
colleges and universities has soared, in part thanks to sharp
reductions in state aid. Mr. Romney isn't proposing anything that
would fix that; he is, however, a strong supporter of the Ryan budget
plan, which would drastically cut federal student aid, causing roughly
a million students to lose their Pell grants.

So how, exactly, are young people from cash-strapped families supposed
to "get the education"? Back in March Mr. Romney had the answer: Find
the college "that has a little lower price where you can get a good
education." Good luck with that. But I guess it's divisive to point
out that Mr. Romney's prescriptions are useless for Americans who
weren't born with his advantages.

There is, however, a larger issue: even if students do manage,
somehow, to "get the education," which they do all too often by
incurring a lot of debt, they'll be graduating into an economy that
doesn't seem to want them.

You've probably heard lots about how workers with college degrees are
faring better in this slump than those with only a high school
education, which is true. But the story is far less encouraging if you
focus not on middle-aged Americans with degrees but on recent
graduates. Unemployment among recent graduates has soared; so has
part-time work, presumably reflecting the inability of graduates to
find full-time jobs. Perhaps most telling, earnings have plunged even
among those graduates working full time — a sign that many have been
forced to take jobs that make no use of their education.

College graduates, then, are taking it on the chin thanks to the weak
economy. And research tells us that the price isn't temporary:
students who graduate into a bad economy never recover the lost
ground. Instead, their earnings are depressed for life.

What the young need most of all, then, is a better job market. People
like Mr. Romney claim that they have the recipe for job creation:
slash taxes on corporations and the rich, slash spending on public
services and the poor. But we now have plenty of evidence on how these
policies actually work in a depressed economy — and they clearly
destroy jobs rather than create them.

For as you look at the economic devastation in Europe, you should bear
in mind that some of the countries experiencing the worst devastation
have been doing everything American conservatives say we should do
here. Not long ago, conservatives gushed over Ireland's economic
policies, especially its low corporate tax rate; the Heritage
Foundation used to give it higher marks for "economic freedom" than
any other Western nation. When things went bad, Ireland once again
received lavish praise, this time for its harsh spending cuts, which
were supposed to inspire confidence and lead to quick recovery.

And now, as I said, almost a third of Ireland's young can't find jobs.

What should we do to help America's young? Basically, the opposite of
what Mr. Romney and his friends want. We should be expanding student
aid, not slashing it. And we should reverse the de facto austerity
policies that are holding back the U.S. economy — the unprecedented
cutbacks at the state and local level, which have been hitting
education especially hard.

Yes, such a policy reversal would cost money. But refusing to spend
that money is foolish and shortsighted even in purely fiscal terms.
Remember, the young aren't just America's future; they're the future
of the tax base, too.

A mind is a terrible thing to waste; wasting the minds of a whole
generation is even more terrible. Let's stop doing it.

More:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/30/opinion/krugman-wasting-our-minds.html?_r=1&nl=opinion&emc=edit_ty_20120430

--
Together, we can change the world, one mind at a time.
Have a great day,
Tommy



--
Together, we can change the world, one mind at a time.
Have a great day,
Tommy

--
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