Unemployment Rate Among Young Explodes to Over 52%; Young Obama Voters Learn Meaning of "You Reap What You Sow"

Last year the media did not mince words in their race to announce that young voters were flocking to Obama. In fact, a google search I conducted while doing research for this entry yielded 210,000 results for the very specific search phrase "young voters flock to Obama". The link provided is to the first one on the list. It was hardly surprising after young people's ridiculous choice at the polls in 2006, when they helped usher in a new era of governmental horrors by voting in droves for Democrats thus handing them control of Congress.

Back in 2007 the new Democrat Congress passed a bill to raise the minimum wage, as promised. Businesses warned that this would make it more difficult to hire new employees, expand businesses and invest in research and development. They were politely told to "shut up" and to stop being so damned greedy. What do these stupid business owners think this is, anyway, capitalism? Sheesh! Well, now the young voters who have steadfastly supported liberals in the past two elections with the hopes of earning a higher minimum wage for flipping patties down at the Burger Barn are finding that the Burger Barn is no longer hiring. In fact, the entry level positions that young people depend upon in order to enter the workforce have all but vanished.

And so today there is a 52.2% unemployment rate among young people.

And worse, without a clear economic recovery plan aimed at creating entry-level jobs, the odds of many of these young adults -- aged 16 to 24, excluding students -- getting a job and moving out of their parents' houses are long. Young workers have been among the hardest hit during the current recession -- in which a total of 9.5 million jobs have been lost.

"It's an extremely dire situation in the short run," said Heidi Shierholz, an economist with the Washington-based Economic Policy Institute. "This group won't do as well as their parents unless the jobs situation changes."

Well, Heidi, unfortunately the "jobs situation" (that's what liberals call an unmitigated domestic policy disaster of their own doing...a "situaton") will not change anytime soon. The fact of the matter is that virtually no one, and I do mean no one, works for the minimum wage in this country anyway. Anytime a liberal on television starts asking you to imagine raising a family on the minimum wage, consider that only 1.5% (yes, the decimal really does go there) of all American workers actually earn the minimum wage. As the Heritage Foundation points out, when you exclude the number of workers who make minimum wage or less, but also earn tips, thus pushing them over the minimum wagee threshold, that number falls to 1.1%. Not 11%. 1.1%. The facts only get worse for liberals from there:

Most workers who earn the minimum wage or less fall into two categories: young workers, usually in school, and older workers who have left school. The majority of minimum wage-earners fall into the first category: 53 percent of those earning $5.15 or less per hour are between the ages of 16 and 24. [4] The remainder are 25 years of age or older...

...Even the vast majority of older adults who earn the minimum wage live above the poverty line. They have an average family income of $33,600 a year, well above the poverty line of $19,806 per year for a family of four. Most of them choose to work part-time, and a sizeable number are married. The average older minimum wage-earner simply does not fit the stereotype of a worker living on the edge of destitution.

Not that any of this matters. Even though the minimum wage was raised just two years ago, purportedly to help all these starving "families" who now can't find any job anywhere because we tried to "save" them, you can still hear screams from the left that the minimum wage is too low. The following articles were all written in the two years since the wage was raised from $5.15 to $7.25. I've translated the titles of the articles so they can be more easily understood to ordinary Americans:

Whaa!! Whaa!!
The Big Apple's Big Heart Ache
Boo Hoo!! Boooo Hooooo!
Blah Blah Blah living wage Blah Blah Blah
"Please Sir, I want some more."

That's a very small sample of the articles out there, although admittedly it's a far greater amount than the number of Americans earning minimum wage while supporting a family.

Now, if you're asking "Russ, when will it ever be good enough for these leftists boobs", then congratulations! You're a sane person and probably a certifiable patriot. But, if you're one of those asking "But, Russ, why doesn't the government force my employer to pay me even more" then I don't think you're exactly what the founders had in mind. Maybe you should move to Iran. The only rich people in Iran are in the government, and I hear the "average man on the street" just loves it there! I mean just look at them!


OK OK OK maybe that was a bad example, but I'm sure it's lovely otherwise! I hear on Fridays there are only 5 public stonings now instead of the traditional 8. So things are improving!

But what am I saying, I mean, nothing could ever compare to the miserable life of the minimum wage earner in America, most of whom are subjected to the humiliation of having a car, a home, a television, a refrigerator and other really terrible third world things like cell phones and computers. Don't you monsters have hearts! I mean we're talking about literally dozens of people here!

Seriously, though. Give me a break.