I came into the job market during the so-called “Reagan Recession” of 1982. There were similar gloom and doom tales about capitalism being a chief ill. There were few jobs and employers looked for qualified applications. In high school and college in the era, parents and counselors suggested we find fields that were of interest and that needed people. In my case, I chose computer science. I was employed withon two weeks of graduating college and have been continuously employed ever since. The demand for software development talent have been consistent over the years and is not at almost and all time high.

Sometime over the past 30 years, seeking a college major which would result in a good job turned into the false narrative that any college degree would somehow earn a student a good job. It wasn’t true 30 years ago and it’s not true now. So now we have highly educated and underemployed young people with heavy college debt blaming capitalism for their woes rather than raking responsibility for improving their lot in life.

In fairness, I employ many young people who chose their career direction carefully, have great jobs, and a bright economic future. So I hold hope that the current crop of college graduates who have not benefited from American capitalism can and will get past the current dubious narratives about how “capitalism” is somehow to blame for their economic woes.