A bleak future for America's youth
By Editorial
The trite phrase "our children are our future" should be recognized for what it really is: an excuse for political procrastination.
Rather than buckling down to solve some of our greatest national dilemmas, politicians are feigning attempts to improve problems that include a failing Social Security program and a troubled campaign to find alternative forms of energy. But don't worry -- today's youth will one day be educated and resourceful enough to find a cure, politicians tell us. After all, no child has been left behind.
A "member of the nation's youth" once translated as a title of hope. We were beacons of promise for a safer society, an end to poverty and a cleaner environment. Now the long list of problems bestowed upon us by today's leaders as they continue to postpone each item's resolution is giving us political burden, not hope.
Given the decline of Social Security's condition and the expensive tab our war in Iraq has racked up over the last four years, today's youth should probably forge their own slogan: "Older Americans are screwing our future."
Congress' decisions last week to lower interest rates on student loans and raise the minimum wage may have offered comfort to some members of our generation, but our new government will need to address far more pressing issues in the coming years if they want to preserve a stable future for us.
Bloomberg.com reports that because of the influx of baby boomers, the cost of Social Security is expected to increase as much as 80 percent to $789 billion from 2005 to 2015 and will be bankrupt by 2040. Thanks Mom and Dad.
Steven Kosiak, the director of budget studies at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments in Washington, told the Los Angeles Times that he figures the U.S. has spent $400 billion fighting terrorism beginning the week after the 9/11 attacks through the end of fiscal year 2006. The Bush administration is financing the war with borrowed money in order to avoid unpopular tax hikes. The result: We will eventually pay the bill for Iraq, plus interest.
Iraq may produce other problems for us in the next few decades if history repeats itself. They call our war in Iraq "this generation's Vietnam," and if that is true, we should be deeply concerned about the effects that war can have on our youthful soldiers' minds. Nine to 12 years after Vietnam, "veterans began showing up homeless en mass," according to the Christian Science Monitor. Sadly, a 2005 New England Journal of Medicine study found that 15 to 17 percent of Iraq vets have major depression, generalized anxiety or post-traumatic stress disorder.
Rising tuition may steer some potential leaders away from public service and into the private sector. Money Magazine says two-thirds of students borrow to pay for college. Even though the total federal student aid has grown, the proportion of people in college has grown, as well. We know that Congress is attempting to lower interest rates on student loans, but will it be enough?
But more importantly, how can we save the world if we're drowning, not only in college and war loans, but freshly melted Arctic ice caps. Oh yes, we're going there.
Despite the fact that a frightening number of Americans believe global warming is a myth, they are wrong. It's science. So add the Kyoto Pact to our youth's "to-do list," because our politicians aren't touching it.
The government needs to stop putting off major social problems in hopes that at the ripe age of 22, their children are going to suddenly strap on some superhero youth cape and shoulder the nation's problems. We appreciate the faith, but the burden is enough to drive a college student to do some serious high-risk drinking.