MILLENNIAL future caucus

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">this also refers to generation categorically</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">capt 719</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">see Gen Z for younger</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/03/01/defining-generations-where-millennials-end-and-post-millennials-begin/">http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/03/01/defining-generations-where-millennials-end-and-post-millennials-begin</a>/
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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/millennials-are-done-us-domination-world-affairs">https://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/millennials-are-done-us-domination-world-affairs</a></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/01/here-are-4-reasons-why-millennials-dont-have-any-money-robert-reich/"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.alternet.org/2020/01/here-are-4-reasons-why-millennials-dont-have-any-money-robert-reich/</font></a></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">no lnx vid</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Here are 4 reasons why millennials don’t have any money: Robert Reich</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Written by Robert Reich / Robert Reich's Blog January 12, 2020</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>
</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>The same forces that are driving massive inequality between the top 1 percent and the rest of us are creating a vast generational wealth gap between baby boomers — my generation — and millennials.</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Millennials aren’t teenagers anymore. They’re working hard, starting families and trying to build wealth. But as a generation, they’re way behind.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">They’re deeper in debt, only half as likely to own a home, and more likely to live in poverty than their parents.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">If we want to address their problems, we need to understand those problems.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Number one: Stagnant wages</b>. Median wages grew by an average of 0.3% per year between 2007 and 2017, including the Great Recession – just as millennials were beginning their careers. Before that, between the mid-1980s and mid-1990s, wages grew at three times that rate.</font></div><div><b>
</b></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Second: As wages have stagnated, the costs of essentials like housing and education have been going through the roof. </b>Millennials own fewer homes, the most common way Americans have built wealth in the past. Education costs have soared. Adjusted for inflation, the average college education in 2018 cost nearly three times what it did in 1978.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>
</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Third: As a result of all of this, Debt. </b>That expensive college education means that the average graduate carries a whopping $28,000 in student loan debt. As a generation, millennials are more than one trillion dollars in the red. In addition, the average young adult carries nearly $5,000 in credit card debt, and this number is growing.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>
</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Fourth: Millennials are finding it harder than previous generations to save for the future. </b>Among Fortune 500 companies, only 81 sponsored a pension plan in 2017, that’s down from 288 twenty years ago. Employers are replacing pensions with essentially “do-it-yourself” savings plans.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">
</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">All of this means that fewer millennials are entering the middle class than previous generations. </b><b>Most have less than $1,000 in savings. Many young people today won’t be able to retire until 75, if at all.</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">If we don’t start trying to reduce this generational wealth gap — through policies like debt relief, accessible health insurance, paid family leave, affordable housing, and a more equitable tax code for renters — millions of young Americans will struggle to find financial security for the rest of their lives.</font></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/meet-exvangelicals-young-christians-are-fleeing-church-cozying-trump">https://www.alternet.org/meet-exvangelicals-young-christians-are-fleeing-church-cozying-trump</a></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">AN</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" /><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b> Taking of Millennial Wealth By Rich White Boomers</b></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></div><div><b>
</b></div><div>The extreme level of inequality in the U.S. is battering the poor</div><div>By Paul Buchheit / AlterNet July 2, 2018, 5:14 AM GMT</div><div>
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</div><div>Ten years after the recession, most Americans, including Baby Boomers, are still struggling with finances. The Wall Street Journal, cheerleader for capitalist-driven recoveries, noted that Millennials, Gen-Xers, and Boomers are all still poorer than in 2007. But the incredible prosperity of about 10% of the Boomers is beyond dispute, as the numbers below will show. Most of those lucky people are older whitemales. </div><div>
</div><div>Booming Economy? Yes, for the Richest 10%, Who Took 85 Percent of the New Wealth</div><div>
</div><div>In the past eight years, the 1% gained $6.75 million each, the 2-10% gained $700,000 each, and the poorest 50% of American adults LOST an average of $3,000 each. The bottom 50%, which includes most of the indebted Millennials, saw their average net worth fall to about $8,000. That's the average wealth of people in many developing nations. Part of the reason is the refusal by employers to pay a living wage. The wages of America's poorest 50% have remained stagnant since the recession, continuing a 40 year trend. </div><div>
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</div><div>Most Millennials Have No Net Worth — or Worse </div><div>
</div><div>According to a Young Invincibles report, young adults who graduated college with student debt now have a median net worth of NEGATIVE $1,900. The College Investor calculates that the averageMillennial net worth for the Classes of 2010-17 runs into the NEGATIVE tens of thousands of dollars. </div><div>
</div><div>The "Deadbeat Millennial" Myth: Most Millennials Can't Even Afford an Apartment </div><div>
</div><div>Despite being better educated, Millennials are earning 20% less than Baby Boomers at the same age, in good part because "full employment" includes gig jobs that pay little more than half the wages of fulltime employees. In 2007 over 50 percent of college seniors had job offers waiting for them at graduation; ten years later fewer than 20 percent did. Planning for the future is generally out of the question. Two-thirds of 21- to 32-year-old Millennials have NOTHING saved for retirement. </div><div>
</div><div>As a result of all this hardship, more 25- to 29-year-olds live with their parents or grandparents than at any time in the past 75 years. </div><div>
</div><div>Rich White Boomer Individuals and Corporations have Redistributed the Profits from 75 Years of Prosperity </div><div>
</div><div>Writer Steven Brill describes the cunning ways of the well-positioned Boomers: "Ingenious financial and legal engineering turned our economy from an engine of long-term growth and shared prosperity into a casino with only a few big winners...They created exotic, and risky, financial instruments [that] separated those taking the risk from those who would bear the consequences...They were able to consolidate their winnings, outsmart and co-opt the forces that might have reined them in...The result is a new, divided America. On one side are the protected few – the winners – who don’t need government for much and even have a stake in sabotaging the government’s responsibility to all of its citizens...On the other side are the unprotected many." </div><div>
</div><div>The richest individuals and corporations have benefited from 75 years of public funding for the technologies that are now replacing working people with robots. Amazon depends mightily on our infrastructure; Apple on our phone innovations; Google on our Internet. All the 'modern' apps have their foundations in the basic research that is still largely funded by our tax dollars. </div><div>
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</div><div>At the very least these companies should be paying their taxes, but Amazon paid NOTHING in 2017, and as of a year ago Apple and Google and Microsoft had tens of billions stashed away in overseas tax havens. </div><div>
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</div><div>So how do the big corporations spend their massive profits? A trillion dollars in stock buybacks and dividends to enrich a decreasing number of shareholders. And extreme payoffs to the job eliminators. Sam Pizzigati gives the example of Hunter Harrison, former CEO of railroad giant CSX, who received a $230 million pay package to streamline the company, partly by cutting 17,000 jobs. </div><div>
</div><div>What To Do? </div><div>
</div><div>The Department for Professional Employees estimates that nearly 10 million service industry jobs will be added in the next decade. These jobs, especially the 'caring' jobs of health care and social assistance, will be of the greatest importance to our aging population, and to a nation that is beginning to understand the value of human cooperation in the pursuit of a stable society. They should be implemented as fulltime living-wage jobs. The corporate recipients of 75 years of public support should pay for them. </div><div>
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</div><div>Paul Buchheit is the author of "Disposable Americans: Extreme Capitalism and the Case for a Guaranteed Income" (Routledge, 2017).  His essays, videos and poems can be found at YouDeserveFacts.org.</div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/right-wing-evangelicals-are-blame-sharp-decline-christians-america-report">https://www.alternet.org/right-wing-evangelicals-are-blame-sharp-decline-christians-america-report</a></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">If t<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">here's one thing the Millennial Generation is known for, it's</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> </span><a href="https://www.brookings.edu/research/millennials/" rel="noopener" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">their love of everyone</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">regardless of their differences. Perhaps that is why they see the turn Christianity has taken to intolerance and has become far too conservative.</span></font></div><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">A poll from <a href="https://www.prri.org/spotlight/white-evangelical-support-for-donald-trump-at-all-time-high/" rel="noopener" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">the Public Religion Research Institute</a> revealed that the recent decline in people describing themselves as a particular religion, the Daily Beast <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/blame-evangelicals-for-the-decline-in-christian-faith" rel="noopener" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">cited</a>.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The generation born between 1980 and 2000 is <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/20180124_metro_millennialreport_pressrelease.pdf" rel="noopener" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">the most diverse generation in history</a> and was raised during the rise of the LGBT rights movement and strive for equality. So, seeing anti-choice, anti-LGBT white evangelicals co-opting Christianity and supporting President Donald Trump to the tune of 75 percent, isn't exactly good for the religion's branding.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">A<a href="https://www.pewforum.org/2010/02/17/religion-among-the-millennials/" rel="noopener" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">ccording to surveys by the Pew Foundation</a>, 23 percent of Generation X (born before millennials in 1965-1980) claim no religious affiliation. That number shoots up to 34 percent of older millennials (born between 1981-1989). It's even higher, 36 percent for younger millennials (born between 1990 and 1996). <a href="https://www.rawstory.com/2017/04/evangelicals-are-leaving-their-churches-over-donald-trump/" rel="noopener" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><em>The Washington Post</em> conducted their own survey</a> in 2017 that had similar results.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The shift didn't happen with Trump, however. There was a time that former President Bill Clinton had a strong relationship with the late Rev. Billy Graham, whose son Franklin Graham has taken his father's somewhat compassionate conservatism and <a href="https://www.rawstory.com/2018/04/evangelist-franklin-graham-white-hot-meltdown-twitter-big-liberal-win/" rel="noopener" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">turned it into rants</a> about morality <a href="https://www.rawstory.com/2018/05/evangelist-franklin-graham-defends-trumps-adultery-stormy-daniels-extramarital-affairs-nobodys-business/" rel="noopener" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">while justifying Trump's adultery</a>.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.rawstory.com/2018/04/millennials-fleeing-organized-religion-christian-hypocrisy-becomes-impossible-ignore/" rel="noopener" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">An important moment in the life of millennials</a> came during the 2004 election, when Karl Rove and the right-wing collaborated <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/id/6383353/ns/politics/t/voters-pass-all-bans-gay-marriage/#.WyXkHRJKjXE" rel="noopener" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">to put nearly a dozen initiatives</a> on the ballot to outlaw same-sex marriage during the 2004 election. It mobilized 10 million evangelicals to the polls and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/04/politics/campaign/samesex-marriage-issue-key-to-some-gop-races.html" rel="noopener" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">ushered in a wave of Republicans</a>. Churches across the country railed against the immorality of homosexuality, bumping up against pop-culture icons coming out of the closet and anti-bullying campaigns aimed at teens.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">White evangelicals have coopted mainstream Christianity, and an entire generation has never lived in an world without hypocritical pastors worshiping the almighty dollar and begging the poor to send Jesus their retirement funds.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Then there is Christianity's science problem. </font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">...</font></p></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/deadbeat-millennial-who-really-blame-when-30-something-still-lives-home">https://www.alternet.org/deadbeat-millennial-who-really-blame-when-30-something-still-lives-home</a></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">...<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> </span><a href="https://www.salon.com/2018/05/21/will-bernie-run-in-2020-former-campaign-manager-he-has-more-energy-than-people-half-his-age/" style="text-decoration-line: none;">interview</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> Bernie Sanders' campaign manager Jeff Weaver about his book "How Bernie Won," a text that sheds some light on what American liberals actually believe. Specifically, the book argues that modern American liberalism is really an attempt to return to the political ideals embodied in President Franklin Roosevelt's 1944 State of the Union address. The section excerpted below is colloquially referred to as the</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> </span><a href="https://www.ushistory.org/documents/economic_bill_of_rights.htm" style="text-decoration-line: none;">"Second Bill of Rights"</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">and argues not that people should be able to live off others, but rather that anyone who is willing to work should be able to find a job and support himself or herself off of their labor.</span></font></div><blockquote style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">It is our duty now to begin to lay the plans and determine the strategy for the winning of a lasting peace and the establishment of an American standard of living higher than ever before known. We cannot be content, no matter how high that general standard of living may be, if some fraction of our people — whether it be one-third or one-fifth or one-tenth — is ill-fed, ill-clothed, ill-housed, and insecure.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">As our nation has grown in size and stature, however — as our industrial economy expanded — these political rights proved inadequate to assure us equality in the pursuit of happiness.This Republic had its beginning, and grew to its present strength, under the protection of certain inalienable political rights — among them the right of free speech, free press, free worship, trial by jury, freedom from unreasonable searches and seizures. They were our rights to life and liberty.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">We have come to a clear realization of the fact that true individual freedom cannot exist without economic security and independence. "Necessitous men are not free men." People who are hungry and out of a job are the stuff of which dictatorships are made.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In our day these economic truths have become accepted as self-evident. We have accepted, so to speak, a second Bill of Rights under which a new basis of security and prosperity can be established for all — regardless of station, race, or creed.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Among these are:</font></p><ul><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The right to a useful and remunerative job in the industries or shops or farms or mines of the nation;</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The right to earn enough to provide adequate food and clothing and recreation;</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The right of every farmer to raise and sell his products at a return which will give him and his family a decent living;</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The right of every businessman, large and small, to trade in an atmosphere of freedom from unfair competition and domination by monopolies at home or abroad;</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The right of every family to a decent home;</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The right to adequate medical care and the opportunity to achieve and enjoy good health;</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The right to adequate protection from the economic fears of old age, sickness, accident, and unemployment;</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The right to a good education.</font></li></ul><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">All of these rights spell security. And after this war is won we must be prepared to move forward, in the implementation of these rights, to new goals of human happiness and well-being.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">America's own rightful place in the world depends in large part upon how fully these and similar rights have been carried into practice for our citizens.</font></p></blockquote><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The mischaracterization of millennials at play with the coverage of Rotondo is equally problematic.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">While liberals are no more likely than other people to be moochers, millennials are indeed <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2018/03/29/for-the-boomerang-generation-there-are-pitfalls-to-moving-home.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;">much more likely than previous generations</a> to continue living with their parents when they're still in the 25-to-35 age range. As of 2016, 15 percent of millennials within that group still lived in their parents' homes, by far the highest that number has been in more than 50 years. It's why the term "The Boomerang Generation" has become a thing.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">For this, we can thank the Great Recession.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">As a <a href="https://www.stlouisfed.org/_{/media/Files/PDFs/HFS/essays/HFS_essay_2_2018.pdf?la=en}" style="text-decoration-line: none;">study</a> by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis pointed out earlier this year, Americans born during the 1980s were uniquely vulnerable when the Great Recession began in the late-2000s and have consequently faced unique hardships in coming to their own as adults. People who were in their late 20s or early 30s in 2016 were the only age group that continued to lose financial ground after the recession ended.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"This represents a missed opportunity because asset appreciation is unlikely to be as rapid in the near future as it was during the recent period," the study pointed out. Another section near the end of the report deserves to be quoted in full:</font></p><blockquote style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Families whose heads were born in the 1980s are different. They generally were too young to be homeowners during the housing bubble; in fact, only 19 percent of 1980s families were homeowners in 2007. Even by 2016, fewer than 45 percent of 1980s families were homeowners. The predominant type of debt they owe is non-mortgage debt, including student loans, auto loans and credit card debt. Because none of these types of debt finance assets that have appreciated rapidly during the last few years—such as stocks and real estate—they have received no leveraged wealth boost like that enjoyed by older cohorts. The 1980s cohort was unique in falling even further behind its wealth benchmark between 2010 and 2016. Given the prospect of lower asset returns in the future than in the recent past, 1980s families face a formidable challenge in building wealth rapidly enough to reach benchmark levels set by earlier generations.</font></p></blockquote><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Despite these economic facts, people who were lucky enough to not come of age during the nadir of the Great Recession still continue to heap unrealistic economic expectations on millennials born in the 1980s.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Earlier this month, MarketWatch became a <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-intersect/wp/2018/05/22/by-age-35-you-should-have-saved-up-enough-despair-to-understand-this-meme/?utm_term=.9417d8cad9e4" style="text-decoration-line: none;">target of ridicule</a> when it wrote that by the age of 35, millennials should have twice their current salary saved up. This may have been the norm during the Baby Boomer era or for members of Generation X, but for millions of Americans who entered the economy in 2008 or the years immediately thereafter, the notion that this would be feasible is downright ludicrous.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">...</font></p><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">poll data</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/these-6-inescapable-facts-help-explain-republican-partys-current-death-spiral">https://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/these-6-inescapable-facts-help-explain-republican-partys-current-death-spiral</a></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">meh</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/millennial-and-gen-x-generations-say-baby-boomers-have-ruined-world-their-poor-decisions">https://www.alternet.org/millennial-and-gen-x-generations-say-baby-boomers-have-ruined-world-their-poor-decisions</a></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">omidyar</font></div><div><span style="color: rgb(70, 70, 70); font-family: Arial, " helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">Kristen Soltis Anderson is a researcher, pollster, and political analyst. She is a leading expert on the millennial generation and is author of </span><i style="color: rgb(70, 70, 70); font-family: Arial, " helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">The Selfie Vote: Where Millennials are Leading America (And How Republicans Can Keep Up)</i><span style="color: rgb(70, 70, 70); font-family: Arial, " helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">. During 2013, Anderson was named one of </span><i style="color: rgb(70, 70, 70); font-family: Arial, " helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">TIME</i><span style="color: rgb(70, 70, 70); font-family: Arial, " helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"> </span><i style="color: rgb(70, 70, 70); font-family: Arial, " helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">Magazine’s</i><span style="color: rgb(70, 70, 70); font-family: Arial, " helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">“Thirty Under 30 Changing The World,” and she was named as one of </span><i style="color: rgb(70, 70, 70); font-family: Arial, " helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">ELLE Magazine’s</i><span style="color: rgb(70, 70, 70); font-family: Arial, " helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"> “Most Compelling Women In Washington” in 2016. As co-founder of Echelon Insights, Anderson leads one of Washington’s most innovative research and data analysis firms, and conducts messaging and polling projects for Fortune 500 companies, associations, nonprofits and campaigns.</span></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/these-6-inescapable-facts-help-explain-republican-partys-current-death-spiral">https://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/these-6-inescapable-facts-help-explain-republican-partys-current-death-spiral</a></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">NRA</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/millennials-arent-saving-retirement">https://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/millennials-arent-saving-retirement</a></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" /><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Remarkable Reason Some Milllenials Aren't Saving for Retirement</b></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></div><div>Most can't afford it, but a <b>handful believe socialism will provide their safety net.</b></div><div>
</div><div>By Keith A. Spencer / Salon March 20, 2018, 5:58 AM GMT</div><div>
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</div><div>CNN reported last week that 66 percent of millennials aged 21 to 32 have nothing saved for retirement. And while their writer chalks up this inequity to student loans, “stagnant wages” and “high unemployment,” there may yet be a deeper cause: many millennials honestly don’t see a future for our economic system.</div><div>
</div><div>The aforementioned CNN article about millennials’ (lack of) retirement savings went semi-viral, partly because many saw humor in how it missed how many truly felt. “RT if socialism is your retirement plan,” Holly Wood, 32, a political organizer, wrote on Twitter.</div><div>
</div><div>The idea that we millennials’ only hope for retirement is the end of capitalism or the end of the world is actually quite common sentiment among the millennial left. Jokes about being unable to retire or anticipating utter social change by retirement age were ricocheting around the internet long before CNN’s article was published.</div><div>
</div><div> </div><div>YES on PROP F Czernobro ??</div><div>@czernobro</div><div>The year is 2055. The only retirement plan available is vlogging yourself shrieking at kindergarten students about Logical Debate so that nihilist death cults will gift you enough Amazon credits that you can spring for the fancy bag of Senior Kibble</div><div>
</div><div>2:06 PM - Mar 10, 2018</div><div>27</div><div>16 people are talking about this</div><div>Twitter Ads info and privacy</div><div> </div><div>Frank Furtschool ????</div><div>@kulturalmarx</div><div>my investing style is i give five bucks to chapo in the hope that their dumb asses will create socialism by the time i retire</div><div>
</div><div>8:45 PM - Aug 3, 2017</div><div>23</div><div>See Frank Furtschool ?????????????????????????????????'s other Tweets</div><div>Twitter Ads info and privacy</div><div> </div><div>Swan Snow</div><div>@Wan_Eyed_King</div><div>My retirement plan is death</div><div>
</div><div>My retirement plan is death at 55: a millennial love story</div><div>
</div><div>8:31 PM - Sep 29, 2017</div><div>
</div><div>Older generations, and even millennials who are better off and who have managed to achieve a sort of petit-bourgeois freedom, might find this sentiment unimaginable, even abhorrent. And yet, in studying the reaction to the CNN piece and reaching out to millennials who had responded to it, I was astounded not only at how many young people shared Wood’s feelings, but how frequently our expectations for the future aligned. Many millennials expressed to me their interest in creating self-sustaining communities as their only hope for survival in old age; a lack of faith that capitalism as we know it would exist by retirement age; and that alternating climate crises, concentrations of wealth, and privatization of social welfare programs would doom their chance at survival.</div><div>
</div><div>“In general, I regard the future as a multitude of possibilities, but most of them don't look good,” Elias Schwartzman, 29, a musician, told me. “When I'm at retirement age, around 2050, I think it's possible we'll have seen a breakdown of modern society.” Schwartzman said that he saw the future as encompassing one of two possibilities: an apocalyptic “total breakdown of industrial society,” or “capitalism morphing into a complete plutocracy.” “I think the argument can be made that we're well on the way to that reality,” he added.</div><div>
</div><div>Wood, 32, a political consultant, told me via Twitter that she felt similarly. “I don’t think the world can sustain capitalism for another decade,” she explained. “It’s socialism or bust. We will literally start having resource wars that will kill us all if we don’t accept that the free market will absolutely destroy us within our lifetime [if] we don’t start fighting its hegemony,” she added.</div><div>
</div><div>“Capitalism might still exist [in 2050], but I don’t expect people will be happy about it,” Jon Good, 34, a chocolatier and small business owner, said. “If [capitalism] is replaced [by then], my ideal economic model is one where all basic necessities are abundant and free, everyone works a few hours a week at the necessary chores of society like garbage collection and machine maintenance, then has the rest of their lives free to pursue whatever projects—be they art, leisure, or industry—that they desire.”</div><div>
</div><div>That utopian hope, that we could theoretically end up in a sort of fully-automated post-work social democracy à la “Star Trek,” was expressed by others too.</div><div>
</div><div>“I think a system with universal basic income is inevitable if we're going to survive the automation of jobs as a society,” Becca Cook, 30, told me over Facebook chat. “We need to shift our understanding and expectations to a world where not everyone has to have a job.”</div><div>
</div><div>Sarah Frasco, 26, a student, saw a gulf between her and the young people who even thought about things like retirement. “For the most part, the idea of retirement or how you plan for it is really the privilege of the few people my age who have access to that kind of security and stability,” Frasco told Salon. “I know a few people from school who are on that track right now and sometimes I compare myself to them and wonder how I'll ever catch up.”</div><div>
</div><div>Good agreed with Frasco that retirement savings plans were the domain of bourgeois millennials. “In the 12 years since graduating college, I’ve spent one year working a job with benefits,” Good told Salon. “The rest of the time I’ve been cobbling together gigs and part-time jobs and under-the-table work that hasn’t paid me enough to save anything.”</div><div>
</div><div>“The economic realities of my generation make the expectations for my parents’ generation seem ludicrous to me—having a job with benefits and that pays enough that I can make rent, and save for retirement and also maybe for a down payment on property seems like a lottery,” Good continued. “Maybe 15 percent of my peer group has this, and having it is a combination of luck and family connections rather than skill and work ethic.”</div><div>
</div><div>Most intriguing, many millennials said that their life plans, goals and careers had been affected by their expectations of the future and the dismal economic circumstances into which they were born. “I was someone who very much wanted to have children by age 35 and no longer think that [is] even a remote possibility, even with two parents,” Wood told Salon. “And having the role of parent so squarely removed from my trajectory of life possibility has made me take bigger risks and made me unlikely to take on any job just for the sake of my résumé.”</div><div>
</div><div>Of course, many millennials are not even in a position of considering retirement savings, much less having options when it comes to work or life decisions. More millennials live in poverty than any other generation, according to a recent Pew Research poll, which noted that "5.3 million of the nearly 17 million U.S. households living in poverty were headed by a Millennial."</div><div>
</div><div>But for millennials who had more economic agency, the expectation of an unstable future meant trying to find happiness in the present. “I just blew all my savings on a nine-month road trip on the assumption that something is going to change drastically in the next few years,” Cook said.</div><div>
</div><div>“Not only am I not saving for retirement, I have never had a serious job because I have thought capitalism would be fucked by [the time I retired] since I was a teenager,” Shannon Malloy, 31, a student, organizer and bartender, said.</div><div>
</div><div>They say every generation thinks that it will be the last, as alt-country crooner Jeff Tweedy of Wilco rhapsodized. And yet, for millennials, it is perhaps understandable given the environmental and political situation at hand. Our ecological survival on the planet seems incompatible with the ever-hungry maw of capitalism, which requires ever-accelerating industrial production and consumption. Just as pollution, carbon emissions, deforestation and planned obsolescence are “good” for capitalist economies, they are horrendous for the environment and seem to be driving us to extinction in ways that are now manifesting in extreme weather events. Meanwhile, the planet’s tilt toward authoritarian politics and privatization do not bode well for the young.</div><div>
</div><div>Interestingly, privileged millennials on the higher end of the economic spectrum had trouble comprehending these kinds of attitudes. John Hagensen, 35, founder and managing director of investment advisory firm Keystone Wealth Partners, couldn’t fathom his struggling coevals’ alternative visions of the future. “I guess my argument to [their points] would be whether [societal collapse] happens or not, where does that change the personal responsibility for you to prepare yourself to take care of yourself and be responsible for yourself?” Hagensen told Salon. “They may be right, so does that mean that for the next 25 years they should save nothing?” Despite Hagensen’s preconceptions that lack of retirement planning indicated a lack of personal responsibility, the millennials I interviewed had all planned thoughtfully and carefully for their retirement — just not in the “traditional” manner, via investment accounts, that Hagensen was accustomed to.</div><div>
</div><div>Indeed, there was a surprising congruity among what “planning for retirement” meant for most of those whom I interviewed. “If I don’t die in the revolution I imagine I’ll be living in an intentional community,” Malloy said. “Either because we have no other options or because we’re trying to have as much autonomy as possible so we can keep doing [political organizing] work. I don’t count on ‘the work’ being finished enough to chill out in our lifetime,” she added.</div><div>
</div><div>“I’m absolutely convinced over how quickly friends have lost their pensions, 401ks and IRAs to bubble crashes that there is no safe place to ‘save’ for retirement,” Wood said, “And the best way to plan for retirement is by building tribes of like-minded peers who have committed themselves to group survival.”</div><div>
</div><div>“I’m way more invested in the family I’m building now than any fake sense of security that some mutual fund may or may not provide for me 20 years from now,” she added.</div><div>
</div><div>“When I'm at retirement age, around 2050, I think it's possible we'll have seen a breakdown of modern society,” Schwartzman told Salon. “I do see it as a real possibility that nuclear holocaust or environmental apocalypse will make money completely meaningless, and that reinforces my approach of living in the now. If I can find my way to saving, or creating a lot of wealth, I’ll use it to buy land and build toward self-sufficiency as a way to hopefully protect myself against the various unpleasant futures that I can see ahead of us.”</div><div>
</div><div>The remarkable consensus suggests that us millennials lacking traditional retirement savings plans might still have a happy retirement outlook, just not in the conventional way that previous generations did. If political organizers and mass movements succeed, we'll have a post-work, post-scarcity future to look forward to; and if not, it seems that many are committed to building their own solidarity networks, intentional communities, and like-minded cooperatives to carry us through the darker years of the 21st century.</div><div>
</div><div> </div><div>
</div><div>Keith A. Spencer is a cover editor at Salon.</div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font><div><a href="https://www.alternet.org/activism/depressing-reason-florida-house-wouldnt-even-debate-assault-rifle-ban"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.alternet.org/activism/depressing-reason-florida-house-wouldnt-even-debate-assault-rifle-ban</font></a></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">you’ve seen the pictures. A handful of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School students watched in dismay as the Florida House blocked debate on a bill to ban assault rifles, less than a week after 17 people were gunned down at their school.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“I’m calling on every student/teacher/parent 2 exercise 1st Amendment Right & engage in sit-ins, protest, walkouts & legal demonstrations. NOW IS THE TIME,” <a href="https://twitter.com/kionnemcghee/status/966346799345754113" style="text-decoration-line: none;">state Democratic Rep. Kionne McGhee</a> tweeted Wednesday, when his procedural move that would have allowed the Florida House to debate the bill was shut down.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">While pollsters and political observers across the country are saying the political response to the nation’s latest mass shooting <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnzogby/2018/02/20/this-time-gun-control-wins/#7103e5e4467e" style="text-decoration-line: none;">will be different</a> because young people are speaking up, organizing and calling for gun controls in unprecedented manners—including <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/they-needed-to-see-it-fla-lawmakers-emotional-tour-of-shooting-site-sparks-bipartisan-talks-on-gun-limits/2018/02/21/a930a37c-16c9-11e8-8b08-027a6ccb38eb_story.html?utm_term=.426503340bc5&wpisrc=nl_evening&wpmm=1" style="text-decoration-line: none;">mass demonstrations</a> in Tallahassee Wednesday—there is a hard truth behind the Florida House’s cold-hearted, high-profile snub. </font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“To the young people getting woke to the politics of gun control, here’s the reality: The old farts who are elected to office don’t give a damn because you don’t vote,” <a href="https://twitter.com/ElectProject/status/966161379060314112" style="text-decoration-line: none;">tweeted Michael McDonald</a>, a University of Florida demographer and nationally known voter turnout expert. “Average midterm turnout rates for ages 18-29 is a pathetic 20 percent. If you want to change the world start by voting.”</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">And this generational apathy has only gotten worse, not better, over time.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Further context: the Census Bureau reports ages 18-29 turnout rate was 30 percent in 1974, the first midterm election 18-20 yr olds could vote (except in 4 states) and followed the close of the Vietnam War,” <a href="https://twitter.com/ElectProject/status/966161379060314112" style="text-decoration-line: none;">McDonald tweeted</a>. “Was the highest midterm turnout rate for ages 18-29 from 1974 to 2014.”</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">McDonald isn’t trying to be the grim reaper at a moment of great trauma for students who experienced a mass shooting. There’s a rising tide of support nationwide elevating the teenagers' call for reasonable gun controls, which is seen in celebrity donations for their marches and other protests.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But he raises a salient point. Florida may be a purple state demographically—<a href="https://www.americanprogressaction.org/issues/immigration/reports/2015/12/11/127154/key-facts-about-florida-voting-demographics/" style="text-decoration-line: none;">evenly split</a> between Republicans and Democrats. But the GOP has dominated its statewide politics for most of this decade, and the legislature has a record of blocking gun controls, including <a href="https://www.slate.com/articles/business/metropolis/2017/01/campaign_to_defend_local_solutions_is_a_necessary_movement_to_protect_progressive.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;">pre-empting</a> gun laws that remain in municipal law books.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In other words, Florida Republicans know they can ignore young people's demands, or patronize them, because when they look past the latest wave of outrage and protests, the historic pattern is this slice of the electorate largely doesn’t turn out and vote—<a href="https://www.electproject.org/home/voter-turnout/demographics" style="text-decoration-line: none;">especially during non-presidential years</a> like 2018.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Thus, the Florida House overwhelmingly voted Tuesday to block debate on a bill to ban the category of weapon used in the latest massacre. But as the <em>South Florida Sun Sentinel</em> <a href="https://www.sun-sentinel.com/local/broward/parkland/florida-school-shooting/fl-florida-school-shooting-gun-rules-20180220-story.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;">noted</a>, its legislative leaders are looking at more watered-down proposals, such as possibly "raising age restrictions for gun purchases" and "temporarily taking away someone's guns if they are deemed a threat.”</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Maybe this latest mass shooting will be different and will galvanize a new wave of political advocacy. But that usually is a longer game and involves voting every time there's an election.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">That hasn't been the pattern for young people. Indeed, <a href="https://www.electproject.org/home/voter-turnout/demographics" style="text-decoration-line: none;">demographic voter turnout analyses</a> from the U.S. Election Project, which McDonald oversees, notes that twice as many people under age 30 vote in presidential years as in midterms. In presidential elections, 40 percent of eligible voters under age 30 typically cast ballots. In midterm years like 2018, it’s under 20 percent.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">That doesn’t mean younger people don’t care about politics and aren’t voting. It’s just that their numbers are poor in midterm years and creeping up slowly in the presidential years. For example, in 2016 the <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/07/31/millennials-and-gen-xers-outvoted-boomers-and-older-generations-in-2016-election/" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Pew Research Center found</a> the electorate’s age was skewing toward younger generations, as opposed to what's been historically larger numbers by seniors and the elderly.  </font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">...</font></p></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/neoliberalism-taking-steep-toll-entire-generations-mental-health-study">https://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/neoliberalism-taking-steep-toll-entire-generations-mental-health-study</a></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Are you a millennial prone to self-criticism? Is your sense of worth inextricably bound to your professional standing and achievements? Do you suffer from acute social anxiety or are otherwise fearful of being judged by your peers?</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>The source of your unhappiness may not be chemical or emotional but a product of our economic system. According to a <a href="https://jacobinmag.com/2018/01/under-neoliberalism-you-can-be-your-own-tyrannical-boss" style="text-decoration-line: none;">study from <em>Psychological Bulletin</em></a>, neoliberalism is producing generations of young people who are increasingly demanding, both of each other and themselves.</b></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">So what is neoliberalism, anyway? Despite what the pundit class might have you believe, it's more than a <a href="https://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2017/07/how-neoliberalism-became-the-lefts-favorite-insult.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;">glib pejorative</a> for the policies of corporate Democrats and the GOP, although both parties have embraced a neoliberal model to varying degrees. <a href="https://www.vox.com/the-big-idea/2017/7/18/15992226/neoliberalism-chait-austerity-democratic-party-sanders-clinton" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Mike Konczal offers the following definition at Vox:</a></font></p><blockquote style=""><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 32px !important;"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>"'Neoliberalism' encompasses market supremacy—or the extension of markets or market-like logic to more and more spheres of life. This, in turn, has a significant influence on our subjectivity: how we view ourselves, our society, and our roles in it.</b> One insight here is that markets don’t occur naturally but are instead constructed through law and practices, and those practices can be extended into realms well beyond traditional markets."</font></p></blockquote><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>As <a href="https://jacobinmag.com/2018/01/under-neoliberalism-you-can-be-your-own-tyrannical-boss" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Meagan Day points out in Jacobin</a>, meritocracy and neoliberalism often go hand in hand. If the whole of society can be reduced to a series of market transactions, then individuals become commodities in direct competition with one another.</b></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 32px !important;"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">"Since the mid-1970s, neoliberal political-economic regimes have systematically replaced things like public ownership and collective bargaining with deregulation and privatization, promoting the individual over the group in the very fabric of society," Day notes. "Meanwhile, meritocracy—the idea that social and professional status are the direct outcomes of individual intelligence, virtue, and hard work—convinces isolated individuals that failure to ascend is a sign of inherent worthlessness."</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 32px !important;"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">Thomas Curran and Andrew Hill, the authors of the study, attribute these feelings of inadequacy to a rise in perfectionism across the culture. While perfectionism is generally understood as the rejection of anything that fails to meet one's own exacting standards, Curran and Hill assign the term distinct categories: self-oriented (holding unrealistic expectations of oneself), other-oriented (unrealistic expectations of others), and socially prescribed, the "most debilitating of the three dimensions." Day describes the latter as "the feeling of paranoia and anxiety engendered by the persistent—and not entirely unfounded—sensation that everyone is waiting for you to make a mistake so they can write you off forever."</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">For those born in the United Kingdom, Canada and the U.S. after 1989, Curran and Hill observe a marked rise in each category, but especially in socially prescribed perfectionism, which has become twice as prevalent as it was a generation ago. This can manifest itself in a variety of ways, including anxiety, depression, eating disorders and suicidal ideation, not to mention an increased dependence on social media.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 32px !important;"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">"[Curran and Hill] cite data showing that young people today are less interested in engaging in group activities for fun, attending instead to individual endeavors that make them feel productive or fill them with a sense of achievement," Day continues. "When the world is demanding that you prove yourself worthy at every turn, and you can’t shake the suspicion that the respect of your peers is highly conditional, hanging out with friends can seem less compelling than staying in to meticulously curate your social media profiles."</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Ironically, social media itself tends to produce feelings of anxiety and alienation</b>. A <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/fulfillment-any-age/201710/is-facebook-making-you-depressed" style="text-decoration-line: none;">wealth</a> of <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/alicegwalton/2015/04/08/new-study-links-facebook-to-depression-but-now-we-actually-understand-why/#69a8a7e01e6d" style="text-decoration-line: none;">research</a> has linked an overreliance on Facebook to depression, so the pressures of neoliberalism and the stresses of social media appear to work in concert with one another, if they're not one and the same. (What are these sites, after all, if not platforms for personal branding?) Either way, the results are deeply troubling.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"Even young people without diagnosable mental illnesses tend to feel bad more often, since heightened other-oriented perfectionism creates a group climate of hostility, suspicion, and dismissiveness—in which the jury is always out on everyone, pending group appraisal—and socially prescribed perfectionism involves an acute recognition of that alienation," Meagan Day adds ruefully. "In short, the repercussions of rising perfectionism range from emotionally painful to literally deadly."</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Until we can begin to imagine an alternative, the destructive cycle seems destined to repeat itself. </font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><em><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://jacobinmag.com/2018/01/under-neoliberalism-you-can-be-your-own-tyrannical-boss" style="text-decoration-line: none;">H/T</a> Jacobin</font></em></p></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><div class="widgetbrief" style="margin: 0px 0px 20px;"><div style="margin: 0px 0px 20px;"><div style="margin: 0px 0px 20px;"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">In a data-driven deep dive, the Huffington Post <a href="http://highline.huffingtonpost.com/articles/en/poor-millennials/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; text-shadow: rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.03em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.03em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0px 0.03em, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0px -0.03em, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.06em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.06em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.09em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.09em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.12em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.12em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.15em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.15em 0px; background-image: linear-gradient(rgb(0, 141, 200) 50%, rgba(0, 0, 0, 0) 50%); background-repeat: repeat-x; background-size: 2px 0.125em; background-position: 0px bottom;">reports</a> on the rising student debt numbers and weakening 401(k) returns that are hurting Millennials — America's largest generation.</font></div></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 20px;"><div style="margin: 0px 0px 20px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong>The bottom line: </strong>"Millennials are facing the scariest financial future of any generation since the Great Depression," per the Huffington Post's Michael Hobbes.</font></div></div><div class="widgetkeep-reading-action widgetshow-more" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-align: center; margin: 0px 0px -20px; height: 0px; overflow: hidden; transition: all 150ms;"><a class="button read-more js--toggle-brief-button js--do-not-track-internal-link js-processed" style="border-radius: 3px; background-color: rgb(240, 240, 240); font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 40px; display: inline-block; border: 0px; padding: 0px 20px; top: -20px; opacity: 0; position: relative; transition: all 150ms;"><span class="sprite-icons-arrow-down" style="background-image: url(" https="https" static.rbl.ms="static.rbl.ms" static="static" img="img" whitelabel="whitelabel" axios="axios" spritesheets="spritesheets" icons.png="icons.png" fd5fd131b="fd5fd131b" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" background-position="background-position" px="px" width="width" height="height" background-size="background-size" display="display" inline-block="inline-block"><span class="read-moretext read-moretext--show-more" style="margin: 0px 0px 0px 11px; text-overflow: ellipsis; overflow: hidden; max-width: 630px; display: inline-block; white-space: nowrap; vertical-align: top;"><span class="read-morecount" style="margin: 0px 0px 0px 11px; display: inline-block; text-transform: uppercase; letter-spacing: 0.5px; font-weight: bold;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span class="js--read-more-count" /></font></span></span></span></a></div></div><div class="js--toggle-brief animate-keep-reading" style="transition: opacity 150ms; opacity: 1; margin: 0px 0px 20px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div style="margin: 0px 0px 20px;"><div style="margin: 0px 0px 20px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The numbers for millennials:</font></div></div><ul style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; list-style: none;"><li style="position: relative; padding-left: 35px; margin-bottom: 20px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong>300% more student debt than their parents</strong>, on average.</font></li><li style="position: relative; padding-left: 35px; margin-bottom: 20px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong>1/2 as likely to own a home </strong>as young people — ages 25–34 — were in 1975.</font></li><li style="position: relative; padding-left: 35px; margin-bottom: 20px;"><strong><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">One in five of young adults live in poverty.</font></strong></li><li style="position: relative; padding-left: 35px; margin-bottom: 20px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong>2.9% average annual returns on 401(k) plans</strong>, compared to 6.3% returns for baby boomers.</font></li><li style="position: relative; padding-left: 35px; margin-bottom: 20px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong>Many millennials will have to work until the age of 75</strong>, based on an analysis of federal data.</font></li><li style="position: relative; padding-left: 35px; margin-bottom: 20px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong>A typical 2009 college graduate could earn up to $58,600 less</strong> than a typical 2007 college graduate over a decade, based on current trends.</font></li><li style="position: relative; padding-left: 35px; margin-bottom: 20px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong>The American racial wealth gap is widening</strong>, with the median white household projected to have 86 times more wealth than the median black household by 2020.</font></li></ul></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><a href="https://www.alternet.org/charter-school-teachers-are-organizing"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.alternet.org/charter-school-teachers-are-organizing</font></a></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">booktv interview sasse</font><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">http://www.millennialaction.org/steven-olikara</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(235, 235, 235);">Millennial Action Project</span><br style="word-wrap: break-word; background-color: rgb(235, 235, 235);" /><span style="background-color: rgb(235, 235, 235);">1875 Connecticut Avenue NW, 10th Floor</span><br style="word-wrap: break-word; background-color: rgb(235, 235, 235);" /><span style="background-color: rgb(235, 235, 235);">Washington, DC 20009</span><br style="word-wrap: break-word; background-color: rgb(235, 235, 235);" /><br style="word-wrap: break-word; background-color: rgb(235, 235, 235);" /><strong style="word-wrap: break-word; background-color: rgb(235, 235, 235);">Phone Number</strong><span style="background-color: rgb(235, 235, 235);">: (202) 480-2051</span></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">https://www.linkedin.com/in/steven-olikara-92b3924a</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">scrape</font></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><b><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Jessica Anderson</font></b></div><div><b><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Grassroots Director at Heritage Action for America</font></b></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Ba Fatima D. Drabo</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Consultant at Solektra International & Akon Lighting Africa</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Daniel Yanisse</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">CEO & Co-founder at Checkr</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Cherisse Eatmon</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">State Caucus Director at Millennial Action Project (MAP)</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">K. Ryan Burke</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Former Special Assistant to President Obama for Economic Policy, the White House</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Thione NIANG</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Social Entrepreneur/ Political Strategist/ Author/ Ambassador</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Andrew M.J. Arruda</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">CEO/Cofounder, ROSS Intelligence</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Kate Aitken</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Associate at McKinsey & Company</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Aaron Ginn</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Growth Hacker, Forbes 30 under 30</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Morgan Guilbeau</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Student at American University in Washington, DC</font></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><table class="form_990_table" style="border-spacing: 0px; border-collapse: collapse; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><tbody><tr><td title="ein" class="form_990_cell font-stronger" style="font-weight: bolder; border-bottom: 1px dashed black; padding: 10px 5px 2px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">EIN</font></td><td class="form_990_cell" style="border-bottom: 1px dashed black; padding: 10px 5px 2px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">47-2802851

</font></td></tr></tbody></table></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Tax Year<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>2014</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Organization Name<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>MILLENNIAL ACTION PROJECT</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Gross Receipts Under $25,000 (True/False)<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>T</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Terminated (True/False)<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>F</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Tax Period Begin Date MM-DD-YYYY<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>2014-01-01</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Tax Period End Date MM-DD-YYYY<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>2014-12-31</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Website URL<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>http://millennialaction.org</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Officer Name<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Steven Olikara</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Officer Address Line 1<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>1601 Connecticuit Ave NW Suite 200</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Officer Address Line 2<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Officer Address City<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Washington</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Officer Address Province<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Officer Address State<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>DC</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Officer Address Postal Code<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>20009</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Officer Address Country<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>US</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Organization Address Line 1<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>1601 Connecticut Ave NW Suite 200</font></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><p style="word-wrap: break-word; margin-top: 0px; background-color: rgb(235, 235, 235);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Assemblywoman Ling Ling Chang (R-Diamond Bar), Co-Chair of the <a target="blank" href="http://www.millennialaction.org/california" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; word-wrap: break-word;">California Future Caucus</a>, was the driving force behind a bipartisan effort to pass <a target="blank" href="http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201520160AB229" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; word-wrap: break-word;">AB 229</a>, which Governor Jerry Brown signed into law on October 11, 2015. The co-sponsors included Assemblyman Evan Low, Chang’s fellow Future Caucus Co-Chair.</font></p><p style="word-wrap: break-word; background-color: rgb(235, 235, 235);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">This law allows for state employees to be reimbursed for using ride-sharing services, like Uber, and short-term rental providers, like Airbnb, when traveling for official state business through 2019. The law’s signing resonates as cities around the country recognize October as Ridesharing Month. More and more, legislation dealing with the sharing economy is being introduced all over the country.</font></p><p style="word-wrap: break-word; background-color: rgb(235, 235, 235);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">As innovative applications like Uber become more widespread, state policies must adjust to the changing marketplace and technological environment. The law provides a <a target="blank" href="http://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/the-state-worker/article28457758.html" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; word-wrap: break-word;">more economical option</a> for employees to use vendors that are less expensive than traditional taxis or hotels, while saving the state money in the long run.</font></p><p style="word-wrap: break-word; background-color: rgb(235, 235, 235);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The concept of a sharing economy is gaining traction, and this legislation showcases bipartisan support for smart regulations. Especially as platforms like Lyft and Airbnb grow and new platforms develop, governments will need to work together to foster innovation and facilitate a successful sharing economy.</font></p><p style="word-wrap: break-word; background-color: rgb(235, 235, 235);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The goal of the California Future Caucus is to foster a nonpartisan community of young state-elected officials that models post-partisan leadership on future-oriented issues facing America’s next generation.</font></p><p id="yui_3_17_2_1_1498419130217_697" style="word-wrap: break-word; margin-bottom: 0px; background-color: rgb(235, 235, 235);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">To learn more about the California Future Caucus, click <a target="blank" href="http://www.millennialaction.org/california" id="yui_3_17_2_1_1498419130217_696" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; word-wrap: break-word;">here</a>.</font></p><p id="yui_3_17_2_1_1498419130217_697" style="word-wrap: break-word; margin-bottom: 0px; background-color: rgb(235, 235, 235);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p id="yui_3_17_2_1_1498419130217_697" style="word-wrap: break-word; margin-bottom: 0px; background-color: rgb(235, 235, 235);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></p><p id="yui_3_17_2_1_1498419130217_697" style="word-wrap: break-word; margin-bottom: 0px; background-color: rgb(235, 235, 235);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">off bs</font></p><p style="word-wrap: break-word; margin-top: 0px; background-color: rgb(235, 235, 235);"><span style="word-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Olikara (<a target="_blank" href="https://twitter.com/stevenolikara" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; word-wrap: break-word;">@StevenOlikara</a>) is a political entrepreneur and the Founding President of the Millennial Action Project (MAP), a national, nonpartisan organization dedicated to activating millennial policymakers to overcome partisan gridlock. In this role, he organized the nation’s first and only bipartisan caucus for young members of Congress, the Future Caucus, and has grown MAP into the largest nonpartisan organization of millennial policymakers in the U.S. Steven’s leadership in this movement has led to pioneering achievements on entrepreneurship, education, the environment, and other key issues affecting millennials in America. Steven also serves as Senior Adviser to multi-platinum recording artist Akon's Lighting Africa, an initiative that has electrified over one million homes in Africa with solar power. A nationally recognized leader and political commentator, Steven has been featured on CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, NBC News, NPR, the <em style="word-wrap: break-word;">Wall Street Journal</em>, <em style="word-wrap: break-word;">USA Today</em>, and many other media outlets.</font></span></p><p style="word-wrap: break-word; background-color: rgb(235, 235, 235);"><span style="word-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Previously, Steven served as Truman Fellow at the World Bank focusing on sustainable energy and advised eight-time Grammy winner Usher’s Foundation on global youth initiatives. He also served as the Harry Ott Fellow on<b> Coca-Cola’s Environment Team, spearheading public-private water projects with USAID in Africa. </b>Steven frequently speaks on next generation leadership at venues such as the White House, Aspen Ideas Festival, Harvard University’s Institute of Politics, Yale College, SXSW, the United Nations, National Press Club, and numerous State Capitols. </font></span></p><p style="word-wrap: break-word; background-color: rgb(235, 235, 235);"><span style="word-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">He serves on the Board of Directors of The Constitution Project, the Advisory Board of Issue One, and the Advisory Board of the University of Wisconsin International Division. He is also a member of the National Press Club, which honored him with the Vivian Award for service. Raised in Wisconsin, Steven graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the University of Wisconsin-Madison as a Udall and Truman Scholar, the nation’s highest undergraduate honor for public service leadership. In 2012, the Wisconsin Legislature recognized Steven with the State Assembly Citation for outstanding contributions to his home state.</font></span></p><p style="word-wrap: break-word; background-color: rgb(235, 235, 235);"><span style="word-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Steven has been recognized as a Forbes 30 Under 30, the Millennial of the Year, an Aspen Institute Ideas Scholar, and one of the Most Influential Leaders Under 40 by <em style="word-wrap: break-word;">Washington Life </em>magazine.</font></span></p><p style="word-wrap: break-word; margin-bottom: 0px; background-color: rgb(235, 235, 235);"><span style="word-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Contact: Steven.Olikara (at) millennialaction.org</font></span></p><p id="yui_3_17_2_1_1498419130217_697" style="word-wrap: break-word; margin-bottom: 0px; background-color: rgb(235, 235, 235);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></p><p style="word-wrap: break-word; margin-top: 0px; background-color: rgb(235, 235, 235);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Ling Chang was elected to the State Assembly in November of 2014 and first elected to the Diamond Bar City Council in November 2009. She served as the Mayor of Diamond Bar from 2011-2012. Councilwoman Chang has served as the City Council delegate to the League of California Cities - Los Angeles County Division, of which she was elected President, and the Southern California Association of Governments. She also serves as a member of the Countywide Criminal Justice Coordination Committee.</font></p><p style="word-wrap: break-word; background-color: rgb(235, 235, 235);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Before joining Council, Chang’s record of public service included serving as an elected Board member and former President of the Walnut Valley Water District Board of Directors from 2005 to 2009, and the Diamond Bar Parks & Recreation Commission from February 2004 to February 2006. Chang was also a gubernatorial appointee to the California Board of Vocational Nursing and Psychiatric Technicians (BVNPT).</font></p><p style="word-wrap: break-word; background-color: rgb(235, 235, 235);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Ling Ling Chang was most recently President & CEO of the Youth Science Center, a non-profit science education organization that focuses on STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) education. Previously, she served as Executive Director of the United Family Services Center, a health and human services agency, where she focused on public health/health policy.</font></p><p style="word-wrap: break-word; background-color: rgb(235, 235, 235);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Before entering the non-profit sector, she worked in the corporate sector at a health information systems firm as a project manager helping develop software products for the health information management/clinical documentation industry; as well as consulting and training physicians, system administrators, directors, and medical staff at various hospitals across Southern California.</font></p><p style="word-wrap: break-word; background-color: rgb(235, 235, 235);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Assemblywoman Chang also serves on the Board of Cal Poly Pomona Partners-in-Education, and had served on the prestigious National Development Council at Cal Poly Pomona. She also serves on the US Army Los Angeles Advisory Board and is a National Fellows Alumnus with the Asian Pacific American Women's Leadership Institute.</font></p><p style="word-wrap: break-word; background-color: rgb(235, 235, 235);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Chang has been formally recognized by the State of California, the State Legislature, various cities across the state, Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, YWCA, local school districts, and many other organizations. She was also chosen as the 60th Assembly District’s Woman of the Year in 2006.</font></p><p style="word-wrap: break-word; margin-bottom: 0px; background-color: rgb(235, 235, 235);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Ling Ling and her husband Andrew currently reside in Diamond Bar.</font></p><p id="yui_3_17_2_1_1498419130217_697" style="word-wrap: break-word; margin-bottom: 0px; background-color: rgb(235, 235, 235);"><font style="" size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></p></div></div></div>