Our economic system of free market capitalism is evolving, and we are not adapting well. Our citizens tend overwhelmingly to agree there is a problem, but we are deeply divided about what to do about it.
Thirty years ago, leaders in most sectors talked about taking financial care of “stakeholders,” not just stockholders. Stakeholders would include shareholders, executives, professionals, laborers, and customers. They all deserved attention to their well-being, and the American Dream seemed within reach of all.
Then the perspective quickly changed. Fed Chair Alan Greenspan spoke out about focusing exclusively on financially rewarding investors, with the other sectors gaining only peripherally from the acquisition of investors.
The net effect was that revenues from corporate production began to drift from labor’s accepted share of the profits to the accounts of non-work produced wealth.
So in spite of the fact that unemployment has hovered around 4% in recent years, the actual dollars going into wages have remained static, and the quality of life for non-professional employees and job-seekers has diminished.
And no work age group has suffered from this inequality more than the Millennials.
While the overall unemployment rate hovers around 4%, the rate among Millennials, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, is a shade under 10%. And that doesn’t include those who have given up seeking employment, those in part time or temporary jobs, those in prison, and those in jobs that would never support an independent life style.
More Millennials live with their parents than any younger generation since the Great Depression. No younger generation has had fewer savings. No younger generation has personally owned fewer durable goods. No younger generation has been in deeper college debt. Many have postponed marriage … or given up on it.
The authors of Obamacare included in it a provision that allowed offspring to stay on their parents’ health insurance until they are 26 years old. That helped, but that provision has come under fire.
In addition, other legislation has been passed putting increased pressure on those struggling. Recent legislation has given states flexibility in administering Medicaid, the public health plan for low income Americans. The governor of Kentucky quickly moved to require recipients to be employed, even if the jobs weren’t there, or the jobs lacked integrity.
That’s a little like teaching people to swim by pushing them off the pier.
If the private sector fails large numbers of Americans seeking work, are there any answers?
Many of the same adverse circumstances existed during the Great Depression, and there were some programs that worked well. One that received almost universal acclaim was the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC).
The CCC was a voluntary, semi-military, government-subsidized, national work program that employed over the course of almost a decade 3 million young men, ages 18 to 25. They lived at over 1400 camps, worked in national and state parks, building roads, dams, and bridges, public buildings, museums, tourist centers, and monuments. They cleared brush and trees, planted decimated forests with over 3 billion trees, tackled the Oklahoma Dust Bowl head on, leaving over a thousand spectacular settings that we enjoy today across the nation.
The young men received the security of a roof over their heads, uniforms, three meals a day, $30 a month ($25 of it went home), and a variety of relevant classes.
They also took away with them a feeling of camaraderie and teamwork, appreciation for work, pride in accomplishment, and an understanding of a need for social structure. Most went on to fulfilling lives, some to distinguished careers.
Several years ago, I was chatting with a neighbor from across the street, and he happened to mention the CCC. A successful businessman with accomplishments to his name, he told me that his CCC tenure was one of the greatest sources of pride in his life. And he said that the surviving group from his camp continued to meet regularly to see how their creations had fared. As a WW II veteran, he felt it made him a better soldier and better citizen. It made him proud of our nation.
This may be a time for us to help the Millennials with a variation of the CCC.
Our evolving economic system sometimes fall short. We sometimes expect it to do things it can’t. It’s too bad we are so reluctant to let our republic pick up the slack when the market falls short.