‘Failure to launch’ a recessional epidemic

In the hit movie, “Failure to Launch,” several years ago, Matthew McConaughey played a young man who just couldn’t grow up and move out of his parents’ house. It was funny then. In this recession, “failure to launch” is an epidemic.

With a youth employment participation rate of under 50 percent (Bureau of Labor Statistics), young people just can’t get out on their own, and middle class parents are paying the price.

Some have never been able to get a job and move out. Some have lost jobs and/or homes and have moved back in with parents. Some have been put through college. They haven’t been able to start careers, and many haven’t even been able to get minimum wage jobs.

These adults aren’t collecting welfare or food “stamps.” Their parents support them: housing, food, clothing, cars, insurance, cellphones, and gas money. This is a financial burden to middle-aged workers who would be otherwise saving for retirement, paying down their mortgages, or making other future plans.

These parents find that their homes have lost value, stock market volatility has taken a toll on their retirement savings, their salaries are stagnant, the cost of living is rising, their taxes have been raised, and they are still supporting their children, who should have flown the nest.

Temporary stimulus measures will do nothing in the long run. We need real, private sector job creation.

Politicians are so focused on budget crises that they have created that they have forgotten that the people have a budget crisis of their own. It’s time for the government to cut nonessential spending and implement policies that support private sector job creation. Nothing else will do the trick.

How many want to be hearing Ben Bernanke saying we need another stimulus in 2015, when the class of 2008 will be turning 30?

Kitty Testa

Libertyville