Stuck: Young America's Persistent Job Crisis

Young adults are in a critical period of change and choices, as they confront the decisions that will pave the way to their futures. But the generation coming into its own in the aftermath of the Great Recession faces challenges that threaten to undermine even the best laid plans. Demos investigated the Bureau of Labor Statistics data for young adults in 2012 in order to see how the experience of young people today affects their prospects for tomorrow. This report found that last year passed with no significant gains for young people, who continue to endure a jobs crisis even as the economy recovers. The latest numbers from 2013 reveal no significant change in the trend. Without policy targeted to the needs of young adults, America risks a generation marked by the insecurities of the Great Recession for the rest of their working lives.

Who Pays?: The Winners and Losers of Credit Card Deregulation

It has been nearly two decades since the credit card industry was deregulated with the promise of bringing greater competition and lower prices to consumers. Under the shield of deregulation, credit card companies have shifted the cost of credit to individuals least able to afford it. As this report shows, low-income individuals, African Americans, Latinos and single females bear the brunt of the cost of credit card deregulation through excessive fees and high interest rates

The Great Cost Shift Continues: State Higher Education Funding After the Recession

As student debt continues to climb, it's important to understand how our once debt-free system of public universities and colleges has been transformed into a system in which most students borrow, and at increasingly higher amounts. In less than a generation, our nation's higher education system has become a debt-for-diploma system -- more than seven out of 10 college seniors now borrow to pay for college and graduate with an average debt of $29,400. Up until about two decades ago, state funding ensured college tuition remained within reach for most middle-class families, and financial aid provided extra support to ensure lower-income students could afford the costs of college. As Demos chronicled in its first report in the series, this compact began to unravel as states disinvested in higher education during economic downturns but were unable, or unwilling, to restore funding levels during times of economic expansion. Today, as a result, public colleges and universities rely on tuition to fund an ever-increasing share of their operating expenses. And students and their families rely more and more on debt to meet those rising tuition costs. Nationally, revenue from tuition paid for 44 percent of all operating expenses of public colleges and universities in 2012, the highest share ever. A quarter century ago, the share was just 20 percent. This shift -- from a collective funding of higher education to one borne increasingly by individuals -- has come at the very same time that low- and middle-income households experienced stagnant or declining household income. The Great Recession intensified these trends, leading to unprecedented declines in state funding for higher education and steep tuition increases.This brief updates our previous analysis of state funding trends by examining trends in state funding and tuition since the Great Recession

By a Thread: The New Experience of America's Middle Class

Developed in collaboration with the Institute on Assets and Social Policy at Brandeis University, By a Thread: The New Experience of America's Middle Class looks at the financial security of the middle class using the innovative Middle Class Security Index, rating household stability across five core economic factors: assets, educational achievement, housing costs, budget and healthcare. The Index provides a comprehensive portrait of how well middle-class families are faring in each of these areas, with spotlight on the strengths and vulnerabilities of today's middle class

The Economic State of Young America

The Economic State of Young America is a comprehensive databook offering proof that a combination of declining incomes, growing debt, and high costs of education, homeownership and healthcare are conspiring to make this generation the first to not surpass the living standards of their parents. The report examines the financial condition of today's young adults across key economic indicators, including jobs and income, debt and savings, college access and attainment, and housing affordability

Access to Health and Health Equity: Findings From The Colorado Trust's Environmental Scan

Findings from The Colorado Trust's Environmental Scan describes the results of a statewide environmental scan done by The Trust to learn more about how health inequity affects access to health in Colorado. Through a telephone survey, community forums across the state, and focus groups with health care leaders, more than 1,000 Coloradans described the problems they believe need to be addressed, and offered potential solutions to help advance health equity

Economic (In)Security: The Experience of the African-American and Latino Middle Classes

As the next installment in the By a Thread series, Economic (In)Security uses the Middle Class Security Index to provide the first comprehensive portrait of the level of financial security enjoyed by African-American and Latino middle-class families. The findings show that, in the wake of fading economic opportunity, these two rapidly growing groups face mounting obstacles in becoming part of, and remaining securely in, America's middle class

A Sonic Intervention Into Authenticity And Black Metal

This thesis is an intervention into the world of black metal and the role that authenticity plays within the politics of the subgenre. I explore the evolution and escalation that takes place between the theatrics, the music, and violence committed in the clamoring to be perceived as ‘true’ metal. Throughout my thesis I use a variety of approaches to create a holistic view of black metal as a subgenre and analyze the ways in which it evolved. My primary focus was studying the music itself, paired with lyrics and later subcultural analysis of my selected bands. As a fan and a scholar, I assert that authenticity not only plays a huge role in the politics of music subcultures, but for culture as a whole. In the case of this thesis, the politics of authenticity in the second wave of black metal may have resulted in arson, suicide, and murder and, at the very least, the reports of this behavior served as a foundational mythology for the subgenre since the 1990s. Overall, this thesis contributes to the new ways of studying music, subculture, and sound from a rhetorical perspective to trailblaze a path for future scholars in rhetorical, metal music, and sound studies

From Middle to Shaky Ground: The Economic Decline of America's Middle Class

A middle-class standard of living requires that families have adequate financial security to meet current obligations, invest in the future, and access opportunities. The most recent findings from the Middle Class Security Index show that between 2000 and 2006--even before the most recent economic downturn--the economic well-being of middle-class families slipped noticeably.Between 2000 and 2006 an estimated 4 million middle-class families lost their financial security, bringing the total number of middle-income families on shaky ground to 23 million.These worrisome changes in the overall financial health of the middle class were driven by a decline in assets, rising housing costs, and a growing lack of health insurance