The War on the Young: Unemployment

(Adam Bitely/NetRightDaily.com) – America’s youth have been hit hard by unemployment. In a recent New York Times column from Mickey Meece, one of the biggest causes of high unemployment amongst America’s youth is completely ignored. And that cause is the 41% government mandated increase in the nation’s minimum wage.

The minimum wage increased from $5.15 an hour in 2007 to $7.25 an hour in 2010. That is quite an increase and one that is hard to ignore. This increase has forced many employers of under skilled laborers to reconsider how many they can afford to hire for summer jobs, when most of America’s youth are seeking seasonal employment between college semesters and high school summer breaks.

While the New York Times completely disregarded the minimum wage increase in their recent write-up on teenage unemployment, famed economist Don Boudreaux of George Mason University noted that the Times would probably notice a drop-off in subscriptions if the government mandated a 41% increase in their subscription price. It is wrong to simply allow this increase to go by unnoticed.

Today, the Department of Labor will be releasing the Unemployment Situation Report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. This report will likely show that America’s youth are the most likely to be unemployed. The increased unemployment of young people has been a growing problem for several years now, accelerated by the phased increase of the minimum wage.

Mickey Meece with the NYT warns us that one can expect fewer lifeguards on beaches and taller grass outside state buildings in Kentucky. Oh the woes of unemployed youth.

One small business owner, Adam Avery of Frederick, Maryland said that he has seen the problems with the minimum wage hike personally. “What government fails to recognize is that minimum wage hikes force small businesses, like my own, to scale back in hiring,” Avery said. “Businesses are forced to retreat from the heavy hand of government.”

But it is older generations of Americans that will be affected down the road. Higher unemployed youth means less people paying Social Security taxes. The Boomers will be hard pinched in coming years when they wonder where their government promised retirement money went.

But this fault solely lies with the boomer generation in Congress that has saddled employers with a situation that makes the youth unemployable. They have made the costs simply too high.

Considering that the nation is currently in the middle of a recession, low skilled laborers should be in higher demand. But with a higher cost associated with these low skilled laborers, why would an employer take these people on when they can barely make ends meet?

There is one new possibility for America’s youth to overcome the high unemployment — if only it were possible under the constitutional age limits on running for Congress.

Instead of seeking traditional employment, America’s youth should consider running for Congress against an Obama backed candidate. Only then would they find a way to combat high unemployment. White House job offers.

(Adam Bitely is the Executive Editor of NetRightDaily.com)