I was at a private fund-raising dinner, where I sat at next to the CEO of an early-stage technology company. The topic of of Seattle’s new light rail expansion came up. The new light rail line would provide rapid transportation between downtown Seattle and the wealthy neighborhood where the CEO lives. “The light rail will bring them close to my home,” he said.
The them he referred to are the people who he would never hire or sit next to at a dinner party because they are NEET. There is more to this story than I can share at the moment, but I can comment on the NEETs who are them—the other—those who have been cast aside by the great economic divide that only favors people who come from privileged circumstances.
NEETs are young people who do not have education, employment or training. The term was originally coined in the UK, but has spread globally to Asia, Europe and the US. The NEET phenomena has become the topic du jour for economic research and press coverage.
According to a new study by the Economic Policy Institute, only 10 percent of 17- to 24-year-olds have a college or advanced degree. {Although the report also noted many more of college students will eventually graduate.]
When you see news stories trending about how hard it is for new college graduates to find good jobs, then consider the plight of NEETS. A recent article in the New York Times cited the challenge for young people without college degrees to get jobs, but this is only the tip of the iceberg.
The real issue underlying the rise of NEETS is one of economic disparity and can be elegantly described in a September 2015 essay, “The Dangerous Separation of the American Upper Middle Class,” by Richard Reeves, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. He notes that the American divide between the top 1% and everyone else is a misnomer. All of the latest data points to the growing gap between the top 20% (or top fifth) and everyone else. The rank and file of the upper middle class has solidified with the top 1% and are and are enjoying unprecedented prosperity and growth, the same as the mega rich.
Reeves wrote, “The top fifth have been prospering
The Young, the Restless and the
NEET
by Patricia Vaccarino