Millennials ‘Royally Screwed’ By Current Economy Could Make Bernie Sanders President [Report]


The millennial generation born between 1980 and the turn of the century, who are often demonized by their elders as narcissistic, lazy, and entitled, have in fact been “royally screwed” by their greedy and short-sighted elders, according to a new report.

Millennials graduated from a “Walmartized” university system that was focused on profits and blind to the needs of students, who were led to believe they would graduate into the sort of secure, well-paid work their parents enjoyed. Meanwhile, the economy crumbled outside campus walls, power solidified in the hands of establishment boomer figures, and new jobs dried up. Millennials emerged from university in debt and out of work, and they will now likely turn to democratic socialist Bernie Sanders, who promises to create “an economy that works for all,” according to Salon.

The Millennial generation [is] the one that faces staggering levels of debt, a bleak job market (even when one does get a college degree, which has become ever more important), and the overall prospect of having a less prosperous future than one’s parents.

Bernie Sanders has railed against “establishment politics and establishment economics” and blasted America’s “rigged economy,” which punishes not just the young but the huge cohort of voters who have not found themselves downstream of the wealth that has flown to a small group in the top echelons of American society over the last 20 years.

Bernie Sanders’ campaign was funded by millions of small donations, and the Democratic nominee has declared that he is “not for sale” — Sanders refused super PACs funding, which allows candidates to accept unlimited sums from corporate donors in oil, coal, pharma and the notorious military-industrial complex.

[Super PACS are] a key part of a corrupt political system that props up a rigged economy.

Universities have also let millennials down, neglecting the nobler aspects of their mission and functioning more like corporations, according to The Huffington Post.

“The core of corruption is with the ‘business’ model colleges and universities have adopted: rake in the tuition at all costs, reward the lifeblood of the institution, the faculty, with diminishing compensation and status, throw six or seven figures at the administrators and give athletic programs a virtual blank check.”

Today’s 18 to 34 year olds are the best-educated generation in American history, according to Salon. Some 22.3 percent have a bachelor’s degree, compared to the 15.7 percent of 18 to 34 year olds who had a bachelor’s degree in 1980. For all their education, millennials today have lower median earnings than their 1980 predecessors. As the economy has slumped, universities have continued to churn out more and more graduates, collecting fees with aplomb and leaving Millennials the most indebted generation, as well as the most precariously employed.

“College has gone from being a place where young adults go to learn how to think critically and question things — including authority — to a place where young adults go to find careers and monetary success (which explains why “business” is the #1 degree). In the process, universities seem to have shifted their focus towards everything but education in the hopes of attracting students from wealthy backgrounds. Sports arenas, food courts, athletic facilities, and an army of bureaucratic administrators to go along with it.”

The latest poll from the Harvard University Institute of Politics found Sanders leading Clinton 41 percent to 35 percent among Democrats aged 18 to 29. The term “Democratic Socialist,” with which Sanders has controversially tagged himself (current president Barack Obama is routinely derided as “a socialist,” i.e. the term is used in a derogatory way), seems to have a positive connotation among the Millennial age group.

The anti-establishment candidate has even found supporters in hacktivist group Anonymous, which declared war on ISIS in the wake of the Paris terror attacks, and who have just announced their endorsement.

Will Bernie Sanders be president?

[Photo by Chip Somodevilla]

Share this article: Millennials ‘Royally Screwed’ By Current Economy Could Make Bernie Sanders President [Report]
More from Inquisitr