Good news, millennials: You don’t need to embrace socialist policies if you want to rejuvenate the economy – and your future.
Rolling Stone published a piece last week purporting to promote “Five Economic Reforms Millennials Should Be Fighting For.” The author, Jesse Myerson, wishes that the government would hire everyone – and even pay them whether they showed up for work or not. These sinecures are supposed to be funded by a massive, regressive tax on land, and the government would then magically have money left over to set up a sovereign wealth fund.
Besides being socialist and unworkable, Myerson’s schemes have no particular relevance to Millennials (people around the same age as Myerson and me).
Fortunately, there are some sensible economic reforms that could actually help young people, achieve broadly valued social goals, and better fit the economy to the skills we supply and the goods we demand. So, fellow Millennials, here are five goals we should fight for:
- Reform Social Security so that it will still be around when you retire and not a cause of tax increases during your peak earning years.
- Reduce occupational licensure. Two-thirds of the jobs you work in your life will come in the first ten years of your career. Occupational licensure makes it harder to try new things and less likely that you’ll find the job you love.
- School choice makes staying in the city more attractive when you eventually have kids. Uniformity is out, choice is in.
- Grant more visas to high-skill immigrants. Millennials are at home in the global village and ready to work with, work for, or hire anyone from anywhere.
- Accreditation reform. More competition would lower the cost of college and better metrics would let employers see your abilities even if you didn’t go to a top-name school.