Newsweek Discovers Young Americans Face Economic Insecurity (Again)
A recent Newsweek article, highlighting a poll on 'deep economic insecurity' among young Americans, frames this as a new revelation. Yet, the story conveniently omits the decades of policy choices that crafted this very insecurity. When politicians prioritize endless wars and corporate bailouts over social safety nets, like the $23 TRILLION allegedly missing from Pentagon spending between 1998 and
2015 (according to a 2015 DoD Inspector General report), or the $100 Billion+ in military aid to Israel alone since 1948, perhaps basic economic stability for citizens becomes less of a priority. Instead of addressing the systemic divestment from public good, we get another poll stating the obvious. How many times will major media outlets report that young people are struggling, without connecting
it to the 1980s shift towards supply-side economics, the gutting of unions, or the ballooning student debt crisis engineered by rising tuition and predatory lending practices? It's less a discovery, more an annual press release that 'water is wet, and young people can't afford rent in late-stage capitalism.'