Brian Gongol Show on WHO Radio - April 22, 2017

Brian Gongol


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Please note: These show notes may be in various stages of completion -- ranging from brainstormed notes through to well-polished monologues. Please excuse anything that may seem rough around the edges, as it may only be a first draft of a thought and not be fully representative of what was said on the air.

Programming Note

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Clean up after yourself: The do-nothing Millennial problem

Among columnists and other opinion-makers, there's no easier piece to write (at least for now) than the "Millennials are lazy" diatribe.

Then again, it's the same old story that's been circulating for thousands of years: "There's something soft, weak, and unmotivated about young people today." Just ask Socrates.

However...sometimes there's important data that goes beyond anecdotes and stereotypes, and we now have a bit of that data from the Census Bureau. They report that there are 2.2 million young adults ages 25 to 34 who are living with their parents and who are neither working nor in school. In a country of 325 million people, that may not move the needle much. But it's bigger than the population of entire states -- like Nebraska (population 1.9 million). If the entire Husker state were living at home with their parents and not showing up for school or for work, Iowans would have good reason to worry that they'd cross the Missouri River looking to steal our stuff.

Nothing good will come of leaving that many young people off the economic escalator. We need to acknowledge the scale of the problem (and if you're living at home doing nothing at 34 years old, that's a problem) so we can turn it into an issue we can start to address as a country. Make no mistake: Ignoring a problem like this won't make it go away.

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Stop the deliberate ignorance

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