By Bill Blum of truthdig.com on Jun 22, 2011<\/p>\n
More than 1.7 million graduating college students are entering \u201ca sorry excuse for a job market.\u201d<\/p>\n
::<\/p>\n
According to a study conducted by Northeastern University labor economist Andrew Sum, a mere 74.4 percent of college graduates under the age of 25 had jobs from October 2010 to March 2011. Of this same demographic, only 45.9 percent held positions that required a college degree, down from 80 percent a decade ago.<\/p>\n
The country my generation is passing on to Sam [Blum\u2019s son] and his peers is a mean-spirited place of global warming, class warfare and diminishing expectations, where the top 1 percent of households own nearly 35 percent of all privately held wealth and the \u201cbottom\u201d 80 percent lays claim to less than half that. It\u2019s a place where that same top 1 percent receives 23 percent of the nation\u2019s income, three-quarters of which stems from thinly taxed capital gains, and giant corporations like General Electric and Exxon receive billions in federal tax subsidies.<\/p>\n