The American Association of Young People Blog

Financial mobilization

There is a lot of talk mobilizing millennials and younger generations to get their vote on and there should be. Groups like David’s Smiths Mobilize.org and Justin Rockefeller’s Generation Engage are vital to actively reminding young Americans how important it is to get involved civically and make their way of life better by electing local and national figures that share (in an ideal world) values closest to their own.

I spent the last few months traveling raising support amongst college campuses, student groups, and just regular (none of them were regular) young Americans. What I found is an exuberant but a little mislead in how the whole thing works. Politics is a distant satisfaction. Take Donnivan M. for example. 19 bright, economics major at a private college in California. His LA bleach white hat tipped perfectly on his head. Doesn’t’ drink, doesn’t smoke, and probably loves his mother. But when pressed about his choice McCain he felt McCain was a better choice for the health of the economy, and for global policy that protected his way of life.

Donnivan is second generation mexican.

And then there is Blake. Creative, small business person who couldn’t contain his exuberance for Obama. A new leader he said of Obama. With the face of a mixed generation that disdained politics as racially charged and that had the greater good-although Blake didn’t seem to know what that is.

I say young Americans unite on a different platform. On a platform that works and will ring the ears of local and nationally leaders more than our vote. yes more than our vote. What is that? I say we ring the cash registers-or not- of major corporations. We continue the American Association of Young People’s efforts to aggregate the Trillions in buying power that spend each year. That’s a lot of money. How much do you spend on music, clothes, electronics-hell your cell phone bill!

Chris Broderick our Exec. Director just had his ACL repaired. At 25, the world is his oyster. But volunteering and between clients he has no affordable insurance. He told the surgeon “I’m not trying to spend another night in this hospital at $500 bucks a night.”

What would happen if 400,000 young Americans went to Aetna and said we have $50 dollars a month. Create an affordable health plan that covers major surgery, birth control, including maternity, and we’ll pay $20 bucks copay. They’d be stupid not to pursue such a immediate demographic.

How bout student aid and the rising cost of education in the USA in the face of the access foreign students have to socialized and highly advanced education. China is minting 3 times the amount of engineers that the USA has currently working! India mints 160,000 MBA’s a year.

I met students who were working two jobs in retail (retail minions unite) to afford middle level schools in hopes of finishing their degree, paying off theirs student debt, and getting into the workforce so they can pay higher taxes, bigger prices at the pump, and shoulder the ridiculous mess that is social security for people they don’t even know.

Don’t believe us? Take a spin on Anya Kamenetz’s blog.

Tags: Barack Obama, education, Gas prices, generation x, generation y, Hillary Clinton, John McCain, Katlikoff, mellenials, Money, Politics, social debt, social security, student debt, taxes, youth