It's time for Occupy Nursing Home

http://news.yahoo.com/us-wealth-gap-between-young-old-widest-ever-050259922.html

The wealth gap between younger and older Americans has stretched to the widest on record, worsened by a prolonged economic downturn that has wiped out job opportunities for young adults and saddled them with housing and college debt.

The typical U.S. household headed by a person age 65 or older has a net worth 47 times greater than a household headed by someone under 35, according to an analysis of census data released Monday.

While people typically accumulate assets as they age, this wealth gap is now more than double what it was in 2005 and nearly five times the 10-to-1 disparity a quarter-century ago, after adjusting for inflation.

The analysis by the Pew Research Center reflects the impact of the economic downturn, which has hit young adults particularly hard. More are pursuing college or advanced degrees, taking on debt as they wait for the job market to recover. Others are struggling to pay mortgage costs on homes now worth less than when they were bought in the housing boom.

The report, coming out before the Nov. 23 deadline for a special congressional committee to propose $1.2 trillion in budget cuts over 10 years, casts a spotlight on a government safety net that has buoyed older Americans on Social Security and Medicare amid wider cuts to education and other programs, including cash assistance for poor families. Complaints about wealth inequality, high unemployment and student debt also have been front and center at Occupy Wall Street protests around the country.

"It makes us wonder whether the extraordinary amount of resources we spend on retirees and their health care should be at least partially reallocated to those who are hurting worse than them," said Harry Holzer, a labor economist and public policy professor at Georgetown University who called the magnitude of the wealth gap "striking."

 

This strikes me as being VERY stupid.

 

I believe this happens every recession. I graduated college in 1990, and I know at the time there were people I knew who went back to school, or stayed in it, because the job market wasn't so good. Heck, for a while I even considered it seriously, to the point of visiting some schools. The hope is, you pick up some additional skills, ride out the market, and when things improve, you've got more to offer and a good entry for the "how-I-spent-the-recession" essay.

 

Oh, I understand the hope. But it's also stupid.

There are other things you can do to gain skills or better yourseslf. Volunteer at a place like Red Cross. Intern. Do AmeriCorps. Take *any* job you can find and learn from it. Temp. Take free classes at the community center. Teach at the community center. Do seasonal jobs.

Sheesh, for the cost of grad school, it'd be cheaper to backpack through Asia for two years or so and pick up work along the way there.

But when you're in debt up to your eyeballs, don't be one of the complainers about "the system" if you choose to attempt to solve your problem by taking on more debt.