From a perspective of working in several jobs since age 16, one could say I approach the issue of youth unemployment and young people living at home from an unusual stance.
I wholeheartedly agree with the wry commonsense wisdom poet Ogden Nash penned: “If you don’t want to work you have to work to earn enough money so that you won’t have to work.”
It’s my belief that people of any age and background should work to learn valuable life skills formal education may not impart upon them – and also that folks should perhaps delay their long-term educational goals to pursue a job or career, even if that may seem “uninteresting” at the time. This work is humbling and dignifying and forms the kind of well-rounded and balanced members a society needs.
Any unemployment, obviously, is difficult for individuals and for nations to cope with. It is a scourge and a reality of the modern era that we are forced to confront all too often. Even as a conservative, I believe government should offer some unemployment insurance to give people a hand up, not a handout.
This begs the valid question, however: “What is the constitutional role of government in the realm of unemployment?”
A system where people can remain on unemployment benefits for years promotes long-term cycles of dependency and being out of work.
To incentivize citizens to find jobs, we ought to shorten unemployment benefits and divert the resources to establishing ways of using government to help people get situated into new careers, even temporarily.
By implementing this ideology, we could lower unemployment and begin to solve the issues of youths.
Formal education can teach us many critical life skills: how to analyze, how to research and problem solving.
However, it cannot teach humility, compassion and work ethic. These sublime characteristics of mankind must be learned through the travail of a workplace.
Only through honest experience in the real world of jobs can people gain this understanding, even if it is a workplace that may seem dull, that may not enliven one’s spirit or a workplace that is not in the career field you ultimately desire.
Many on the left say that to achieve personal happiness and holistic fulfillment they must stay in school as long as possible, earning as much of a pedigree as they can (all while being supported, fully or in part, by the government) before they enter the workforce in their career area of expertise and specialty.
I will refute this misconception.While entering the job market now is tough anyway, it is even more difficult to enter it with one specific goal or position in mind. There are many, many applicants for each position, and odds of actually being hired are low. That’s why I suggest working in many fields, even those which may not interest you, not only to diversify one’s resume, but also to teach fundamental, universal skills aforementioned.
While remaining a professional, full-time student for years and years seems desirable, it is actually a drain on economic progress and a stunning blow to personal growth.
In closing: our society needs people to work, learn, grow and then enter school when it is feasible for them to support themselves through this mighty endeavor. Paying one’s own way through college makes the experience much more worthwhile and meaningful and also drive students to make the best choices for themselves and their educations, as opposed to relegating their learning to life’s wastebasket of drugs and alcohol.
