Youth Politics

It has been said that Americans of my generation are the most irresponsible and the most reckless when it comes to finances. Some blame parenting. Others blame schooling. Yet others blame the media for encouraging spending. So who’s really to blame? I don’t really know. Honestly parents should be teaching finances to their kids, but that’s just me.

But that’s not what we’re talking about here. We’re talking about the current economic situation in the United States. Public schools are cutting back funding, food prices are going up everywhere, and well, now gas is coming down, which helps slightly, but not much. How do you explain to a bunch of kids that their teachers are no longer teaching or that Dominoes Pizza’s 5-5-5 deal is now $5.55 for three pizzas? The answer is by finally teaching them about economics.

Microeconomics is typically the intro course to economic study… in college. I didn’t say we needed to teach kids about economic theory. What they need is practical economic advice. What they need is a hard look at how to do finances, or what finances even imply. Ask a ten-year-old today if he or she knows anything about writing a check, how a credit card works, or how to go about getting a loan. Would he or she even know you need to build credit before you can buy a house? Would this kid even know that most people don’t pay for their houses with cash!?

Good grief! This is a world where people can make purchases online, and how are those purchases made, with cash? Most likely not. Plastic is seeing more and more use because it’s needed to make virtual transactions. It looks so easy to these kids. You just type in a bunch of numbers from a card and voila, you have purchased yourself a new online game or a new toy or new clothing or whatever you can buy on the Internet (which is practically everything these days). Shouldn’t kids be taught how to use these cards? Isn’t it important for kids to know how the world really works, before they get immersed into a world full of advertisements and people telling them to get a bunch of loans at outrageous rates?

There’s so much to know these days, that I think it’s imperative to start teaching these kids about finances and economics early. I highly do not recommend giving kids their own credit cards or anything like that, but it’s still vital they know how the system works. This is especially true with loans. Now sure, kids won’t typically be placing down payments on homes or be needing a loan for a new car. I understand that. But using a credit card is like taking a loan. In fact, it is taking a loan! That’s exactly what credit cards are, and like all loans, they have certain fees and interest rates attached to them. Kids need to learn about these details, and not just that its something you can use now and pay back later. Even with college students today, I challenge any of them to tell me their credit card’s APR off the top of their head. If any of them get that correct, then I would follow up with what the APR jumps to if they miss a single payment. This is a challenge I’m going to win most of the time, and that just doesn’t seem right to me.

Okay so let’s talk about the real issue behind this discussion: the American economy. We’re looking at tons and tons of foreclosures by the tanking housing market as well as a credit crunch at the same time. Combine these two factors with rising food prices and a higher price for gasoline (yes, it’s still high, believe it or not) and you’re looking at bad times for the United States. I’m not saying that younger kids need necessarily understand the dynamics of the situation, but look at how many young people are struggling to stay afloat in this abysmal economy. So many people have taken the economy for granted that they did not save a pool of funds in case of a crisis. Too many people felt too comfortable even as they accumulated debt, banking on the United States economy to stay strong. This obviously backfired. And now the government has to step in and spend money to help these struggling families (which means they’re using your taxpayer money, if you didn’t get that already). I’m not placing fault on all families who are struggling or anything like that. I don’t want anyone to feel like they are struggling to survive. But could better financial decisions at the individual level have softened the blow on so many people today?

This is why it is extremely and utterly important that young kids start getting to know the know-how of personal financing and economics. It’s in their best interests to get a head start today, because it’s impossible to predict the economic situation of the future. There are so many legal terms, binding contracts, loopholes, and documents, that it’s enough to make the heads spin of even those who work with those sorts of things daily. Knowledge is power, and the power for kids to learn how to control their own finances so that they do not pile on debt or make poor choices in buying a home is critical in making sure the American population makes wiser decisions economically. May these current times set an example for the kids who are growing up and are about to enter the economic whirlwind that the world is today.

For any young voters or those interested in the youth vote, please check out Century Foundation’s YouTube channel. The Century Foundation is a progressive public policy think tank, and they have an interest in informing the younger generation of the political world and also holds forums where youths can participate and even be shown in one of their YouTube videos. I encourage you to check out their YouTube videos at the very least to get a feel for how their discussions go, and you may even learn a thing or two. Thanks.

Sometimes people need to just hear it from someone else. If you don’t vote, you have no control over what the government does. Yes, people say how they feel powerless anyway. These people say that no matter what they do, America will do whatever it wants, and the government will do whatever it wants. In fact, people have very little faith in the government these days. People are very cynical and skeptical about our political system. Is it not working? Do people not really have a say?

I think giving up is even worse than feeling powerless. People are creating their own illusion of dis-empowerment. Well of course you’re feeling powerless I’d say, because you no longer vote! People who do not vote and feel powerless are absolutely right. They have no power because they want to have no power. How does not participating help to change anything. Not participating is a conceit. America didn’t become the nation it is today by having people who gave up on what they believe in. Imagine if slaves had given up on trying to gain their freedom. Would they have ever gotten it if they had never tried? It’s hard to say. I’m inclined to say no, because inaction is like agreeing with anything and everything that occurs. Voting is analogous to speaking one’s mind in politics, and if you disagree with something, you need to say it or it will never be heard.

Do you feel comfortable putting your fate in the hands of others? I know I don’t. Why should I? The person who knows best what’s right for me is myself. No one else can tell me what I need or what I desire. Why do people lock their doors at night? Why have a lock at all if you want to put absolute faith in everyone else? Not voting is like leaving your house door wide-open. Not voting is like having the populous tell you what you want and what you need. To some people this is fine, people like being controlled in that manner. However, I cannot live that way, and I can imagine that a lot of you cannot live that way, either. For those who have gone or are currently attending college, remember how incredibly freeing it was to finally get out of the house and live on your own? Didn’t it feel great knowing you were now in almost total control of your own affairs? No one in college tells you what you may or may not do, besides anything that breaks the college’s policies or breaks the law. It is a great feeling to make your own decisions. Voting is a similar deal. You finally get the chance to have your own voice as to how America proceeds in the future. You get a tiny bit of control, for once. I claim a tiny bit of control is better than no control at all. It’s just like my own life. If I had to choose between having no control over my life and a tiny bit of control, I’d take the tiny bit every single time. If you feel the exact same way, and you do not vote, or are not registered to vote, I recommend that you do.

Anyone who does not vote I don’t believe has a say about anything that occurs in this country for the period that officials were elected. They have none. I don’t want to hear criticisms from these people, and I don’t want to hear complaints. They did not vote because they chose that the country proceed in this manner by choosing to do nothing. I have to reiterate that inaction is the same as accepting the status quo, whatever it may be. Thus it is imperative for anyone who has an opinion at all to vote if, for example, I am to take that person seriously and truly pay attention to his/her opinions. As far as I’m concerned, those who choose not to vote have no opinion, or their opinion is that of the majority, whatever majority that may be.

So please, if you care at all to make your own decisions, vote! It’s a painless procedure and it is extremely empowering. What better way to voice your opinion than to tell America itself what you want? If you’re not registered to vote, there’s still time to register! Over on the sidebar you’ll see a banner that takes in voter registrations. All you have to do is click, fill out the form, and you’re done! It’s painless, it’s free, it’s simple, and best, best of all, it’s your ticket to having a voice in America.

There’s an easy, sure-fire way to reach the young voters, and that’s to visit schools. I’m not really talking about high school and below, but what I meant is colleges and universities. I’m talking about a vast youth population all situated in one place, easily able to attend any speech or talk held on campus. I’m talking about going to the voters rather than having them go to you. People complain that young voters don’t come out to the polls, well what if the polls came to them? If the candidates want young voters to actually care about the topics or even get them to recognize who you are and what you believe in, than you’d better go out of your way to introduce yourself to these people. Those ages 18-24 is a big demographic; why would you skimp out on them? There’s no excuse for either party not to visit these schools.

Now I realize a candidate cannot feasibly visit every college campus in the nation. Nor do I expect any candidate to do so. But even if you visit just one college per every two states, you’re going to reach 25 campuses. If you select the bigger campuses, you’re talking about a potential audience of 10,000 people every time. Easily. Remember that just because a speech is held on campus doesn’t mean only students will attend. You’re looking at 250,000 people, potentially mostly young voters, that you’re reaching. And let’s not forget the press coverage. If a candidate is shown to actually care about what young people think, the people who actually have the most to lose in any given election, then that may draw out a lot more voters from that demographic. It’s a fact that people follow trends. If something isn’t very popular, then a lot of people won’t go with it if only because of that fact.

I realize that youths don’t have very much say in government, and we have no real lobbyists. We also don’t have many voices out there speaking on our behalf. But that’s no excuse to ignore us, and if ever a candidate complains about losing by a slim margin, may that person look back at the number of young voters he or she tried to reach out to, and then tell me where the candidate may have snagged a few more votes.

I’ll entertain any questions or concerns via email at crowtche@juniorpolitics.com, or of course you’re always welcome to leave a comment.

This is of course a no brainer. They don’t lie all the time, and I’ll go out of my way to say that they are telling the truth most of the time, whether it’s given an opinionated twist or not. The problem arises when the media makes a mistake, and it’s these kinds of mistakes that people need to watch out for. Remember the memo forgery dilemma to discredit President Bush? It things like that which bias the public in an unfair manner, and it’s indirectly hurtful to the candidates. The media blunder I’ve seen reported recently isn’t nearly so damning, but it does question CNN as an unbiased news source. You can read more about the incident here.

For most of you this is obvious, but it brings up an important point: You cannot rely on only one source for all of your information! When people become emotionally attached to a specific point of view, it’s going to be hard to break out of the habit of recognizing other views. This can be harmful, as it essentially closes your mind off from other possibilities. I don’t mean okay, I’ll just start watching Fox if I haven’t been already, or I’ll start watching CNN. This doesn’t concern just TV media. This means that on the Internet, where there is a plethora of information, you should try to dig for articles and posts from opposing view points. Try to see as many angles as possible. When reading one article, before wholeheartedly agreeing with the content, find the opposing view point first. Then make up your mind. It doesn’t hurt to mix it up either. Sometimes, read what you feel is the opposing view point first, and then the view point you feel may be closer to your own feelings.

Another approach to this is to become a critic. Simply do not believe any sources at all until you have established undeniable evidence of the truth. The approach works, but I’m not a big fan of it. First of all it requires a significant amount of work just to prove even the smallest idea. Second of all, it takes too much time to verify everything you hear. So much time in fact, that you end up doing nothing but verification and not enough thinking about how you feel and not developing your own position on the matter. This is all besides the fact that critics seem like negative Nancys to me. My opinion of course, and you’re welcome to argue this point with me.

The media is not above anyone else. Everyone in the media is human, and humans may make mistakes. A ridiculous claim by the media must not go unanswered, and it is your imperative to question the source. Going on the Internet and retrieving information from various sources will help to insure that you know the facts, the opinions, the commentary, and this in turn will help you best develop your own tool set of arguments on the topic.