The future for working people under capitalism can be seen most sharply by looking at its impact on young people.

The recession has accelerated already falling living standards for U.S. youth and hit young people harder than any other section of the population. 16 to 24 year-olds have lost at least 2.5 million jobs since December 2007. As of September 2009, only 46% of youth between 16 and 24 were actually working – the lowest figure on record since 1948 when the government started keeping track of this statistic.

Youth unemployment rates have exploded. The unemployment rate in November 2009 for 16 to 19 year-old African-Americans was 48%! For Latino and white youth in that age group the rates were nearly 30% and 23%. African American youth in their early twenties are suffering from 27.1% unemployment compared to 13.1% for whites (Bureau of Labor Statistics, The Nation, 11/23/09).

Falling living standards for the majority of U.S. youth re-emerged with the end of the post-WWII economic upswing in the mid-1970s. The neo-liberal capitalist assault of deregulation, attacks on unions, privatization, outsourcing, and cuts in government social spending of the last 30 years has dominated U.S. economic and government policies.

Even before this most recent recession, job and educational opportunities in the U.S. had become much more difficult to find for youth. For example, even in 2006 at the height of the housing bubble, African-American youth between the ages of 16 and 24 still faced an unemployment rate of around 23%.

The AFL-CIO has just published “Young Workers: A Lost Decade” (December 2009), a national survey of young workers. Fewer jobs, lower wages, and rising education and health care costs are some of the worsening problems which have created a generation of youth with precarious, diminished futures.

This survey reveals that “more than one in three young workers (under 35) are currently living with their parents” and “more than half of young workers earn less than $30,000” per year. One third of these workers are unable to pay their bills and “seven in ten of young workers do not have enough saved to cover two months of living expenses.”

The survey also showed that many young workers are not only putting on hold further education or professional development, but also delaying starting a family. Most young workers who dare to start families in this generation will be joining an economic race to the bottom. Recent consumer finance statistics show that “one of the sadder facts of modern economic life in the United States is that young people (those under 30) have done especially bad by former standards… the wealth of young families has fallen in recent decades… [with] a substantial rise in annual income and earnings inequality.”

Challenge, an economics magazine, states that in 2007 “the combined wealth of the bottom 50% of young households was less than zero.” The top 20% of young households captured 97% of the net worth of all young households combined.”

As these facts demonstrate, capitalism is a dead end for young people in America. Inequality is nothing new in capitalist society, but recent economic trends show the disparity is worsening, especially among youth, and as the youth go, so goes the future.

Unions and community groups, as well as youth themselves, need to organize an immediate campaign to demand a massive jobs and paid training program for young people. Not just summer jobs programs but programs that will continue throughout the year. At the same time, youth and their allies need to organize for free higher education and free national health care.

Neither the Republican nor Democratic parties speak for young people. The two corporate parties are not interested in even talking about basic entitlements like the right to a job, education, and health care. This blatant neglect of what should be regarded as basic human rights shows the need for a new, mass political party to represent working people and youth. To succeed, such a workers’ party would need to take up the methods and ideas of democratic socialism in order to fight for a decent future for all.