By Andrea Ordonez, Columnist
After signing up for classes a couple weeks ago, my friends and I complained about the reality check that comes with each class registration. Every time we sign up for classes, it is a sign of one semester closer to graduation and the real world. It did not help that shortly after signing up for classes, I happened to fall upon an opinion piece by Matthew C. Klein, a research associate at the Council on Foreign Relations, in The New York Times, about the trouble recent college graduates have at finding jobs.
While U.S. government leaders insist on playing a part in Middle East affairs like Egypt and Libya, unemployment remains significantly high in America. Klein noted that while 25 percent of Egypt’s population under the age of 25 is unemployed, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics notes that 21 percent of America’s 16-24 year olds have no jobs either. Although the U.S. percentage does not seem that high, Klein mentions that the statistics are void of how many college students have turned to getting graduate degrees in order to delay entrance into the job market.
Why are Obama and Clinton putting exorbitant efforts and funds into helping countries across oceans with their uprisings and protests instead of the young people who helped place them into office?
I applaud the youth in the relevant Middle Eastern countries for taking a stand against government corruption. Imagine if college students across the country decided to hold protests of the same gravity over their inability to find jobs. Many times, American students have taken to protesting for humanitarian causes that were happening in other parts of the world.
Students all around the country, including those at Hofstra, took a prominent stand against the Vietnam War. But do they take massive protests about wars in Iraq or Afghanistan? Those causes seem more detached from the problems on the domestic front: the lack of employment.
I would not say that it is government corruption that has caused the national surge of unemployment, but a distortion of national priorities. One should also note that corruption is a major cause of current unemployment in New York.
Governor Andrew Cuomo has tried countering that corruption by mentioning in several of his budget addresses that such government dishonesty must end. He has also extensively tried to get his budget proposal approved by the April 1 deadline so that it can be implemented that much faster.
Still, much debate remains over the intended cuts towards state spending on education and Medicaid. Only time can tell how, if those cuts are put in place, they will affect this generation as it begins trying to survive in the real world.
As a college sophomore, the real world sometimes seems like it is miles away. At the rate that several of my classmates and I are going, accumulating more debt in graduate school looks better than being jobless in the real world. The issue of this generation’s unemployment should become a major priority for government leaders. This generation will soon be the ones with the influence the shape the world, and should therefore be given some sort of solid ground.
