Who is preying on Generation Debt?

July 4, 2008

I THOUGHT Adam Turl's article on increasing poverty rates and radicalization among youth in the U.S. was excellent ("Generation Debt").

It also complemented Eric Ruder's article challenging a pro-military approach to GI outreach ("Is the antiwar movement scaring people away?"). If the GIs we encounter are in that age demographic, then they are more likely to have progressive views than GIs of the 1980s and '90s.

Two ideas came to mind as possibly valuable follow-up articles. One topic is the role that progressive movements play in the radicalization of youth. For instance, Turl mentions a majority support for same-gender marriage among 18- to 29-year-old workers. It is not unreasonable to deduce that the equal marriage rights movement nationally contributed to the favorable viewpoint, perhaps more so than shrinking economic prospects.

Another topic to examine in light of Turl's article is how debt and poverty of youth contribute to increasing rates of military enlistment and of incarceration. Politicians respond to increasing poverty with zero-tolerance law enforcement, resulting in not only more jail cells for youth but also more police violence, such as the murder of Sean Bell in New York City and 15-year-old José Luis Buenrostro-Gonzalez in Oakland.

Military recruiters not only visit campuses and hover around malls; they also descend on the prison population, which is disproportionately poor. I have received at least one report from the Adult Correctional Institution in Rhode Island that a military recruiter visited an inmate in maximum security. He promised the inmate guaranteed parole at his next hearing if he enlisted.

Considering so many parolees have even fewer job prospects with a felony record, the offer is doubly enticing. But how many enlistees who are not in prison nonetheless feel compelled to join the military not only for the money promised, but also for fear that their lives might otherwise spiral ever downward?
John Osmand, Ventura, Calif.

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