The Young, the Restless and the NEET

NEETs are young people who do not have education, employment or training.  The term was originally coined in the UK, but has spread globally to Asia, Europe and the US. The NEET phenomena has become the topic du jour for economic research and press coverage.

Journalist Peter Gumbel wrote in late 2012 that NEETs are "especially prevalent in the U.S." and constitute a "marginalized group of young people." 

According to a new study by the Economic Policy Institute, only 10 percent of 17- to 24-year-olds have a college or advanced degree. {Although the report also noted many more of college students will eventually graduate.]

When you see news stories trending about how hard it is for new college graduates to find good jobs, then consider the plight of NEETS. A recent article in the New York Times cited the challenge for young people without college degrees to get jobs, but this is only the tip of the iceberg. 

The real issue underlying the rise of NEETS is one of economic disparity and  can be elegantly described in a September 2015 essay, “The Dangerous Separation of the American Upper Middle Class,” by  Richard Reeves, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution.  He notes that the American divide between the top 1% and everyone else is a misnomer.  All of the latest data points to the growing gap between the top 20% (or top fifth) and everyone else. The rank and file of the upper middle class has solidified with the top 1% and are and are enjoying unprecedented prosperity and growth, the same as the mega rich.

Reeves wrote, “The top fifth have been prospering while the majority lags behind. But the separation is not just economic. Gaps are growing on a whole range of dimensions, including family structure, education, lifestyle, and geography. Indeed, these dimensions of advantage appear to be clustering more tightly together, each thereby amplifying the effect of the other.”

A 2016 study published by the Brookings Institution in Washington cited that 3.2 Million disadvantaged youth between 16 and 24 were not in school and did not have jobs. They are NEET.

By examining the NEET predicament you will get a crash course estimating the true direction of where this country is heading.  While economic research and news covering the NEET phenomena is accurate and in-depth, it only documents the hard data. No one has connected the dots. No one has examined what will happen to nation’s social, economic and political fabric once young NEETs grow older and restless.

It’s no secret that mass movements begin when the established social order either excludes or overlooks the needs of the young, especially young men.  You don’t have to look very far to find evidence of bloody political revolutions that were built on the backs of young men who were spurned by conventional society: The French Revolution; the Bolsheviks in Russia; the rise of Nazism and Fascism in Europe; and the rise of communism in Asia.

ISIS? ISIS should be renamed NEET. There is no doubt that the rise of ISIS is more than fallout from a botched attempt to stabilize the region by killing Saddam Hussein. ISIS is much more radical and has far more tentacles around the world than the smaller terrorist network of al-Qaeda. Instead the rise of ISIS is a logical and inevitable outgrowth when young men are denied jobs, education and training. 

The author and social Philosopher Eric Hoffer wrote extensively about mass movements. In “True Believer,” his great social treatise on mass movements, Hoffer states that “mass movements begin with a widespread desire for change from discontented people who place their locus of control outside their power and who also have no confidence in existing culture or traditions.”

The ill-fated WTO protests and the Occupy Movements were widely dismissed as a bunch of anarchists who were disorganized and lacked a central message or a viable platform for change.  But the reasons for their discontent are authentic and they are gaining gravitas. Good jobs, education and training, all of the opportunities that come with economic parity, are being denied to millions of young people.

It’s not only the lack of jobs. It’s the lack of meaningful jobs available for NEETs who can’t afford to go to college and who do not have the opportunity for learning on-the-job skills. The CEO has every reason to worry about them showing up in his neighborhood. It’s only a matter of time before a bunch of NEETs gain leadership, a compelling message, and a unified mandate to effect change that takes their needs into account.

Photo Credit: David A. Culp taken at May 1, 2014 at May Day in Seattle