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Matthew 24:34

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March 27, 2024, 12:55:24 pm Mark says: Shocked Shocked Shocked Shocked  When Hamas spokesman Abu Ubaida began a speech marking the 100th day of the war in Gaza, one confounding yet eye-opening proclamation escaped the headlines. Listing the motives for the Palestinian militant group's Oct. 7 massacre in Israel, he accused Jews of "bringing red cows" to the Holy Land.
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September 24, 2017, 10:45:16 pm Psalm 51:17 says: The specific rule pertaining to the national anthem is found on pages A62-63 of the league rulebook. It states: “The National Anthem must be played prior to every NFL game, and all players must be on the sideline for the National Anthem. “During the National Anthem, players on the field and bench area should stand at attention, face the flag, hold helmets in their left hand, and refrain from talking. The home team should ensure that the American flag is in good condition. It should be pointed out to players and coaches that we continue to be judged by the public in this area of respect for the flag and our country. Failure to be on the field by the start of the National Anthem may result in discipline, such as fines, suspensions, and/or the forfeiture of draft choice(s) for violations of the above, including first offenses.”
September 20, 2017, 04:32:32 am Christian40 says: "The most popular Hepatitis B vaccine is nothing short of a witch’s brew including aluminum, formaldehyde, yeast, amino acids, and soy. Aluminum is a known neurotoxin that destroys cellular metabolism and function. Hundreds of studies link to the ravaging effects of aluminum. The other proteins and formaldehyde serve to activate the immune system and open up the blood-brain barrier. This is NOT a good thing."
http://www.naturalnews.com/2017-08-11-new-fda-approved-hepatitis-b-vaccine-found-to-increase-heart-attack-risk-by-700.html
September 19, 2017, 03:59:21 am Christian40 says: bbc international did a video about there street preaching they are good witnesses
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Psalm 51:17
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« on: February 19, 2013, 12:21:01 pm »

Matthew 24:34 Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled.

This article has a good amount of spin and exagguration in it(plus a rather misleading title) - but nonetheless some truth can be found reading between the lines.

http://news.yahoo.com/millennials-not-think-133800080.html

Don't believe everything you see on Girls
 
Unofficial millennial spokesperson Lena Dunham, while incisive and entertaining, is not the voice of my generation.
 
On Dunham's buzzy dramedy Girls, self-involved twenty-somethings balk at $12 salads by day and guzzle $14 ****tails by night while their parents bankroll their "groovy lifestyles." It's an enticing narrative. But these stereotypes fail to recognize some rapidly evolving trends among young echo boomers entering adulthood.

Millennials, typically defined as anyone born after 1980, make up an enormous and diverse generation, but many of them share a common experience — entering adulthood during the country's greatest economic downturn since the 1930s. The financial duress of the Great Depression produced the Greatest Generation, a cohort of Americans known for conservative spending and saving habits, resilience, and a tireless work ethic. And believe it or not, young people who came of age during the Great Recession are beginning to mirror those habits.

Although graduates now enter an exceptionally difficult job market with an average $25,000 in student loans, they are often hired more quickly than job searchers from preceding generations, in part because they are more willing to accept jobs for which they are overqualified, according to a survey conducted by MillennialBrandingAndBeyond.com. For instance, while many unemployed members of Gen X continue to hold out for positions that meet their criteria, echo boomers will take retail and part-time jobs in the interim.

"I hope, and I do believe that I will have a job offer when I graduate, but I think that that speaks to my work ethic and the fact that I've been working every single semester and every summer since I was a sophomore," said NYU senior Maddie Chivi. "The reason that so many of us do put ourselves out there and are interning and our resumes are built already is because we are worried. There aren't as many jobs out there. People are out of work and to override that our generation has overcompensated to a certain extent."
 
Many members of Gen X entered the workforce in the 1990s digital bubble, and benefited from plentiful job opportunities, high salaries, and workplace flexibility. Millennials aren't experiencing the same gentle water birth into the working world. While a young Gen X grad might recoil at the prospect of long hours in an unpaid internship for the elusive potential to perhaps, one day, be gainfully employed, most millennials I know wouldn't dream of not doing so — despite what you see on Girls. Resume-building work for little to no compensation is par for the course for young people entering the workforce today. It's not worth complaining about. It's simply a necessary step to compete when jobs are few and far between.
 
Economic pressures have also revolutionized our perspective on sharing and ownership. Today's young people aren't showing the same interest in buying cars or homes that previous generations did in their twenties. Miles driven, vehicle sales, and teenagers obtaining drivers' licenses fell between 1998 and 2010, according to The Atlantic. A Federal Reserve study showed that the number of people taking out their first mortgages in 2000 was two times the number of young people doing so between '09 and '11.
 
Why? Largely because millennials are breaking from this traditional socio-economic trajectory in favor of temporary group living in more urban centers, and supporting companies that serve a new sharing economy. Transportation may have been about style and comfort for previous cohorts, but like anything popular with the millennials, it's now about speed, efficacy, and access. Companies like Ride Amigos Corp and Zipcar have reached enormous popularity with young people because they rely on technology to increase efficiency and reduce costs. This model is extending into other industries, like hospitality, with Airbnb, and apparel, with threadUP. Young people are prioritizing easy, low-cost access to these good and services over the luxury of ownership.
 
Of course, millennials are still consumers. But what distinguishes us from our predecessors is how and what we consume. Despite the size of my generation, it represents the smallest group of luxury spenders today. While this can be partially explained by our lower incomes, millennials have different spending priorities than their predecessors did in their 20s. When we do purchase luxury goods, we go about it very differently than consumers in past generations did. Today, young people are more concerned with smartphones and tech gadgets when it comes to expensive purchases, and as smarter consumers, they find a way to afford them. They rely on daily deal services like Groupon and they are willing to sacrifice other expenses like designer fashion, cars, and meals out at fancy restaurants to acquire the items they find necessary for their daily lives, according to the Department of Labor Consumer Price Index for 2011.
 
"People say that millennials are very entitled people," says professor Aimee Drolet Rossi, a psychologist specializing in consumer decision-making at the UCLA Anderson School. But "increasingly, that's not going to be the case because there were no jobs for them. The economy was tough and they really needed to step it up. In education, there is less emphasis being placed on people feeling good about mediocre results. You're getting away from this trend of people in their present day 30s, where they got a trophy just for showing up."

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Mat 24:32  Now learn a parable of the fig tree; When his branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is nigh:
Mat 24:33  So likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors.
Mat 24:34  Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled.
Mat 24:35  Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away
.

Joh 3:5  Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.
Joh 3:6  That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
Joh 3:7  Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.
Joh 3:8  The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.





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Psalm 51:17
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« Reply #1 on: February 28, 2013, 12:33:21 pm »

http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/daily-ticker/millenials-lost-generation-130643180.html

2/27/13 Are Millennials a “Lost Generation”?

It’s hard out there for a Millennial. While the national unemployment rate has kept firm at 7.9%, the jobless rate for Millennials (or the 80 million Americans born between 1980 and 2000) continues to increase, reaching the alarming rate of 13.1% in January. Millennials now have the highest generational unemployment in the United States.
 
The Pew Center calls Millennials the “boomerang generation," because nearly 40% of all Americans between the ages of 18-34 still live at home with their parents; numbers this high haven’t been seen in over 70 years. And the boomerang trend is expected to continue or even worsen. The National Bureau of Economic Research reports that those who graduate during a recession will earn 10% less over a decade of work. Unfortunately for Millennials, research shows that 70% of overall wage growth occurs in the first 10 years of one's career.
 
But those who do manage to find jobs are also struggling. Young people with high school degrees have seen their inflation-adjusted wages decline by 11.1%; college graduates have seen a smaller, yet significant, decline of 5.4%, according to the Economic Policy Institute.
 
As a result, Millennials aren’t taking on debt or making economy-boosting purchases. Young people aren’t buying houses or cars and they’re delaying marriage and children. According to The Pew Center, home ownership amongst young people has fallen from 40% in 2007 to only 34% in 2011. 73% of young households owned or leased a car in 2007 compared with only 66% in 2011.
 
Many have also begun to wonder if college is worth the cost — outstanding student loan debt now tops $1 trillion. In 2011, two-thirds of college seniors graduated with an average of $26,000 in student loan debt.
 
Gerald Celente, Editor and Publisher of the Trends Journal, believes the depressed livelihoods of today's younger generation — "generation eff'ed" as he refers to it in a recent edition of his magazine — will lead to a revolution of sorts.
 
"The new frontiers are going to be the burnt out urban centers, so it might be the Millennials who become the homesteaders, farmers, and gardeners of Detroit, or Camden," says Celente. "When people lose everything and have nothing left to lose, they lose it. And you're going to start seeing a lot of young people losing it in a lot of different ways."
 
These are startling statistics and advocates have run with them calling Millennials a “lost generation,” attempting to parlay unrest amongst America’s youth into some sort of rallying cry or at least attempting to appeal to them as a voting bloc.
 
Yes, the numbers are staggering but calling Millennials a lost generation and telling young people to stop attending college seems alarmist at best.
 
While the unemployment rate for young workers is nearly twice as high as the overall rate, it still pays to stay in school. Between 2011 and 2012 the unemployment rate for High School graduates was 31.1% while the unemployment rate for college graduates was 9.4%, a significant difference.
 
Of course young people have a harder time finding employment than their adult contemporaries; they have less experience and are new to searching for work. In both recessions and expansions young unemployment is historically nearly double the national rate.
 
Millennials aren’t the new homesteaders, they’re not moving in droves to abandoned urban centers like Detroit to farm and start art galleries. This view of young Americans applies largely to those with liberal arts educations and money to fall back on.
 
Are Millennials really “generation eff’ed”?

While things don’t look great for the current generation of young adults, they are not hopeless. Let’s not disregard 80 million Americans.
 
Be sure to watch the video above for Celente's contrary opinion.
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« Reply #2 on: March 25, 2013, 04:57:18 pm »

First off, no, please don't think I'm trying to belittle the Millennials generation - we have a couple of people in this age group on this message forum that bear good fruit, and are firm to the faith and the KJV.(and for that matter too, I'm in the Gen X crowd, which isn't much better)

Anyhow, whenever I read articles on the Millennial generation, a lot of scripture over the end times just rings in my head. So ultimately all of the lies and deceptions we've been fed in our secular institutions growing up is really starting to reap its rotten fruit now.

http://news.yahoo.com/whats-worrying-millennials-pretty-much-everything-171311340.html
3/24/13
What’s Worrying Millennials? Pretty Much Everything

Rachel Evans of Wheaton, Maryland, can tell you precisely when she reached her peak stress level recently: A customer at the pizza shop where Evans works was frustrated at the long line and took it out on her. Then, regretting her sharp tongue, the customer apologized, adding, “And I’ve bet you’ve got your high school homework to do after you get home.” In fact, Rachel is 29, has a B.A. and a masters in social work, and has been looking for a job for so long she finally took on some babysitting and a shift at the pizzeria to help pay the bills after getting married late last year.

Rachel is hardly the only Millennial—usually defined as adults ages 18 to 33—who’s stressed to the breaking point. A recent survey from the American Psychological Association (APA), titled “Stress in America,” found that Millennials reported an average stress level of 5.4 on a 10-point scale, exceeding the national average of 4.9. Of the four generations included in the survey, Millennials ranked highest; “Mature” adults (67 and older) ranked lowest.

Other findings of the survey:

·      Nearly half of Millennials (49 percent) do not believe or are not sure that they are doing enough to manage their stress;

·      Few say they get stress-related support from their healthcare provider (just 17 percent say their provider gives them support for stress management); and

·      Only 23 percent think that their healthcare provider supports them a "lot or a great deal" in their desire to make healthy lifestyle and behavior changes.

And what are the causes of so much tension and worry? According to the survey, work easily topped the list (76 percent), followed, not surprisingly by money (73 percent). Relationships were a stressor for 59 percent of Millennials. 

Relief doesn’t look to be in the immediate picture for many Millennials. On the work front, according to Generation Opportunity, a nonpartisan millennial advocacy group, while unemployment for the nation as a whole was 7.7 percent in February, it was more than double that—16.2 percent—for young adults ages 18 to 29. For those with a job, but stressed by a killer workload, a dead-end position, and/or bosses, the APA offers resources for dealing with job-related stress.

A Harvard School of Public Health panel convened to talk about the APA's "Stress in America" survey noted the huge public health impact of so much worry: It's linked to heart disease, asthma, ulcers and beyond. One expert on the panel likened the effects of chronic stress on the heart to cigarette smoking.

It’s easy to see why the burden seems heavy. In addition to the dire unemployment rate, people in their 20s carry an average of $45,000 in debt, largely from college and graduate school, according to Our Time, an advocacy group for young Americans. Our Time says the solution is lowering the cost of higher education, but that’s an idea that is of course much too late for people already in debt. The National Foundation for Credit Counseling offers tips for keeping credit strong while paying back loans and other debt.

Antonia Baum, M.D., a triathlete and psychiatrist in Chevy Chase, Maryland, says that something as simple as daily exercise—which doesn’t have to cost much, or anything—can be a big help in cutting stress.  Baum goes so far as to take some of her patients for a jog or walk during therapy sessions. It doesn’t really matter what type of activity you do. “Any form of exercise that gives you discipline and structure can be a positive,” she notes. “In addition to physiologic changes that occur, you get your blood flowing, and your oxygen level increases to every part of your body, including your brain, which creates a sense of well-being and being powerful and strong.” And that’s got to be a good counterpoint to overwhelming stress.
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« Reply #3 on: March 25, 2013, 05:11:58 pm »

^^

Again, I'm NOT trying to belittle the Millennials generation(as we have a couple of KJV believers in this age group here staying strong in the faith of Jesus), but a couple of things to point out...

1) Not that I endorse the 501c3 Churchianity system, but nowdays we have Millennials preaching on the pulpits - now THIS is a scary thought to begin with. In the first place, a Bishop cannot be a novice, or else he'll lifted up with pride and come unto the condemnation of the devil. But nonetheless, anyone should shudder at this. Even youth group leaders in this age group haven't been a good thing either b/c a lot of them have been brainwashed in this Emergent/Postmodernism theology that's hit Churchianity since the beginning of the 21st century.

2) As you can see, after many years of deceptions via public institutions, entertainment media, etc telling them that one day they can live the "American Dream"(getting a nice salary from a nice job with promotion opportunities, living in a nice home, having a nice car, raising a nice family, etc) and potentially have the whole world at their fingertips...it's as if they've just realized they're running into a dead end with their brakes broken.

Ultimately, the blame has to be layed not at Caesar, Hollywood, the public institutions, etc, but at Churchianity b/c they've fallen away from preaching the truth and have been giving false hope to their pews that everything is goody-goody, just as long as they sit in a pew every Sunday in church.

Mat 4:3  And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread.
Mat 4:4  But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.
Mat 4:5  Then the devil taketh him up into the holy city, and setteth him on a pinnacle of the temple,
Mat 4:6  And saith unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down: for it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning thee: and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone.
Mat 4:7  Jesus said unto him, It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.
Mat 4:8  Again, the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and sheweth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them;
Mat 4:9  And saith unto him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me.
Mat 4:10  Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.

« Last Edit: March 25, 2013, 05:55:50 pm by BornAgain2 » Report Spam   Logged
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« Reply #4 on: April 18, 2013, 01:40:14 pm »

http://news.yahoo.com/narcissistic-broke-6-other-ways-describe-millennial-generation-074800035.html
Narcissistic, broke, and 7 other ways to describe the Millennial generation [Updated]
4/18/13

This new generation of adults — portrayed most recently in HBO's Girls — has proved quite difficult to define, but not for lack of trying

Who are the Millennials? Aside from being born in the 1980s and 1990s, they comprise a generation that continues to elude a neat definition. With the popularity of HBO's Girls, whose main character thinks she's the voice of this new generation ("Or at least a voice. Of a generation."), Millennials have come under renewed focus in the media, among the literati, and in the boardrooms of marketers trying to pinpoint what this demographic wants. Here, nine ways that Millennials have been described:

1. They're natural entrepreneurs...
Call it "Generation Sell" — Millennials are less inclined to join a commune or a movement, and would rather start a small business, says William Deresiewicz at The New York Times. Brought up in the "heroic age of dot-com entrepreneurship" that defined the 1990s, and distrustful of "large organizations, including government," the Millennial views small business as "the idealized social form of our time."

2. ...But they aren't acting on whatever entrepreneurial instincts they have
As a 1984 baby, Mark Zuckerberg sits comfortably in the Millennial generation. But the social network magnate is, in this view, the exception rather than the rule. Older American entrepreneurs are now 30 percent more common than younger ones, says David Yanofsky at Quartz. And this divide is only going to grow wider. According to the Kauffman Foundation report, in 2012, the Millennial generations' business initiatives declined to a six-year low. For every 100,000 young adults, only 230 startups were created. Whereas in the 55 to 64 and the 35 to 44 age groups, 340 business per 100,000 people were created.

3. They're spendthrifts...
Studies show that Millennials, who have been swamped by ad campaigns since they were in the crib, are more likely than their elders to spend big, "especially on new technologies," says Julie Halpert at The Fiscal Times. These studies say Millennials are addicted to instant gratification, and view new gadgets as needs, not wants. Millennials are also "the fastest-growing demographic of those who purchase luxury goods," says Rachel Krause at The Frisky, engaging in the kind of "lavish, indiscriminate consumerism" that will lead to the "death rattle" of their bank accounts.

4. ...And they're broke
A new survey shows that 25 percent of Millennials "reported not having enough money to cover their basic needs," a much higher percentage than older generations, says Corilyn Shropshire at Business Insider. Millennials have been hit hard by the recession, and are weighed down by ever-growing mountains of student debt. They're also less financially literate than their parents, and "the lack of financial savvy among Millennials could have a trickle-down effect with detrimental consequences for society," says Hadley Malcom at USA Today.

5. They're socialists
Looks like the "right-wing cries of 'socialist takeover!' may be based in more than paranoia," says Nona Willis Aronowitz at Good. Polls show that 49 percent of Millennials "view socialism in a favorable light," compared with 43 percent who view it unfavorably. Millennials are also the generation of Occupy Wall Street, the anti-corporate movement, and "it's not hard to figure out why our generation isn't so gung-ho about capitalism — it has disappointed and, in some cases, straight-up failed us."

6. They're narcissistic
Millennials "may not be the caring, socially conscious environmentalists some have portrayed them to be," says Joanna Chau at The Chronicle of Higher Education. One study says that Millennials are more narcissistic than their elders, and increasingly value "money, image, and fame more than inherent principles like self-acceptance, affiliation, and community." While college students in 1971 ranked "being very well off financially" as their number-eight concern, for Millennials it's consistently at "the top of the list."

7. They're politically engaged
Many assume that Millennials can't "be bothered to put down their bongs and go out to vote," but the the truth is that Millennials "are voting in increasing numbers," says Fred Bayles at Metro. Millennial support for President Obama was a key to his 2008 victory, and they overwhelmingly supported him over Mitt Romney in 2012, too.

8. They're less religious
A new study shows that college-age Millennials are increasingly moving away "from the religious affiliation of their childhood," says Joe Carter at The Gospel Coalition. About 25 percent of younger Millennials are unaffiliated with a religion, up from 11 percent who were affiliated with a religion in childhood. About 76 percent of Millennials feel that modern-day Christianity "has good values and principles," but 64 percent object to the church as being "anti-gay."

9. They're stressed out
Millennials are more stressed out than previous generations, according to a recent study, says Alice G. Walton at The Atlantic. The biggest sources of stress for Millennials are "money, work, and the cost of housing." They are also "more likely to say that relationship problems were sources of stress," and less likely "to express their feelings in their relationships." Millennials are more likely than older generations to turn to yoga and meditation as stress relievers, as well as going online or playing video games.

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Side note - one of the things the Emergent/Postmodernism Church(Rick Warren, Bill Hybels, etc) stress in their buildings is carnal/earthly relationships with others. When my previous church did that 40 Days of Purpose nonsense, we teamed up with partners in our Sunday School classes to have email interactions throughout the week. It was nonsense, really.
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« Reply #5 on: April 25, 2013, 12:38:02 pm »

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/why-gen-y-losing-debt-120000718.html
Why Gen Y Is Losing The Debt Battle
4/25/13

NEW YORK (MainStreet)—Generation Y - those born between 1981 and 1995 - carry less debt than the national average. But it isn’t necessarily a good thing. Most of Gen Y’s members hold “bad debts” – like credit card debt and other loan products that don’t build assets. No one can conclusively answer why. Maybe it’s the job market. Maybe impulse buying and a digitalized consumer-driven society are to blame. Whatever it is, experts are wary those debt woes aren’t going to get better anytime soon.

While more than 60% of Gen X’s debt is good debt, such as student loans and mortgages, Gen Y is heading in a different path - 48.4% of Gen Y debt comes from non-asset building loans – bad debt –according to a recent study of over 20,000 users by the financial reward site, Saveup.com.

Results found Generation Yers had an average total debt load of $28,930, including $4,113 in credit cards, $7,358 in lines of credit and $12,410 in car loans on average.

Some experts blame Gen Y’s losing debt battle on a slow-to-recover job market. Paul Golden, CEO of the nonprofit organization the National Endowment for Financial Education, says, “More education typically translates to more pay. However, the job market has been hard on Gen Y and has forced some to delay repaying their student loans, take a lower paying job, or remain in school longer.”

A recent analysis of government and university data for the Associated Press backs up Golden’s concerns. In 2011, 53.6% of workers under the age of 25 who held bachelor’s degrees were jobless or unemployed.

Changing patterns in education could also be to blame.

“Generation Y has accumulated more bad debt than good debt, because they spend more time in the higher education system,” says Greg Brooks, founder of Textbook Assault. Brooks believes Gen Y’s tendency to pursue education beyond a bachelor’s degree delays the beginning of careers and “creates a severe imbalance, because the individual isn’t making money, but also spending a ton on education.” To finance their cost of living, “they rely on credit cards and loans as a way to pay the bills,” according to Brooks.

What’s just as alarming—possibly even more so—we can’t learn from our own mistakes. “Studies are showing younger generations are more likely to continue to accumulate debt—even into their 70s--some could even die in debt,” says Roger Cowen, a financial planner and founder of Cowen Tax Advisory Group. It’s like some of Gen Yers are addicted to debt, like being in the red is some kind of high score in a debt video game. And maybe our almost cybernetic fusion with electronics is helping us pave the way to a debt-filled retirement.

“I think the digitalization of merchant services had a big impact on producing debt for the younger generations. The ability to pay for something with one or two simple clicks on a smart phone means people are now more likely making rash purchasing decisions,” says Soren T. Christensen, CFP and CEO of Advanced Wealth Advisors, LLC. Christensen thinks Gen Y’s ability to buy instantly, anytime, without having to shop in-store or purchase with cash encourages a kind of depersonalized reckless spending. “The more we distance ourselves from having to fork over actual money, and from the physical in-store purchasing process, the easier it is to accumulate bad debt such as credit card debt,” says Christensen.

But what about those Gen Yers with the so-called good debt? Jonathan Bunt, a 29-year-old insurance agent in New Milford, Conn., recently bought a home, putting him in the minority of Generation Y with good debt - but he doesn’t see it that way. To him, there is no such thing as “good debt” or “bad debt.” It’s a strain on his life and a cause for concern for his future whether it comes in the form of credit cards or a mortgage.

Bunt became discouraged after he had his home reappraised a year after moving in and found out it’s worth less than his total mortgage loan. His dream of homeownership started to darken.

“The model doesn't work anymore, not when people don't have the money,” says Bunt.

So what’s a generation to do? Saveup.com CEO Priya Haji believes it breaks down to two important, basic fundamentals: saving more and spending less. Haji recommends that everyone, not just Gen Y, try to “closely monitor the level of debt they are taking on, particularly consumption-related debt.” In other words, taking on debt should be a considered action—such as financing a return to school to finish a degree rather than a non asset-building purchase like a new car. Ideally, debt should be used “wisely for education, which can drive future earnings or for purchasing a long term asset like a home at a non-inflated price.”

Breaking online, impulse-buying habits is also a good way to avoid unnecessary debt.

Haji says that “while consumption early in life is most tempting,” it could also breed bad habits that will hurt the long-game approach to being financially stable with long-term savings.

For those with debt already, Cowen believes Gen Yers need to take a more direct approach. “Focus on paying off those credit cards, one at a time, starting with the one with the highest interest rate. Invest in your future- participate in a 401(k) or Roth IRA.”

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« Reply #6 on: April 25, 2013, 04:31:13 pm »

Quote
Most of Gen Y’s members hold “bad debts” – like credit card debt and other loan products that don’t build assets

And who is directly responsible for that being possible? Banks and their credit cards.

Bankers, and others, nailed Gen X with mortgage scams, and now they are nailing Gen Y with credit debt that has built up with these folks being sucked into the trap of "online shopping" with their pc or "smart phone". Now they are not able to make real purchases, like a house, because of debt load and overall bad debts, so they are trapped into renting, which financially in the long run is a huge waste of money. Get "downsized", miss those rent payments, and your on the streets!

All because people have been duped into thinking they must do this or that in society to be a part of it, like new clothes, cars, jewelry, tech gadgets, partying, etc., and in many respects, like what you wear, is structured a certain way, like the business world, no suit? No job, and even if you do manage to get hired somewhere, you don't get the same treatment, not being "attired properly", so society in the world puts demands on those who want to participate in their little carnal love of money. Don't have the "in" phone, or the latest "app", or a member of some social site, your out of the loop. But that's a loop nobody should be in.

The only way we can be "unspotted from the world" is by the indwelling of the Holy Ghost. The Spirit will tell us what to do and what to say, if we just focus on God and not get distracted by the lusts of the flesh, which is in part a lack of contentment.

"Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, [and] to keep himself unspotted from the world." James 1:27 (KJB)
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« Reply #7 on: May 15, 2013, 09:23:19 am »

Innocence lost: Class of 2013 comes of age in a weak economy
5/14/13
http://www.nbcnews.com/business/innocence-lost-class-2013-comes-age-weak-economy-1C9907299

The members of the class of 2013 entered college under the gloom the Great Recession, came of age in an era of economic uncertainty and are graduating into a job market still scarred by high unemployment.

It’s a situation that many graduating seniors say has had a profound effect on their lives, influencing everything from where they went college to what they now plan to do with the rest of their lives.

“Basically, I feel like it’s always been in the back of my mind,” said Alison Ritrosky, 21.

She’ll be graduating from the University of New Hampshire in Durham this month with a degree in teaching, and she plans to go straight into a graduate program. The extra education will push her student loan debt up to around $65,000, but she thinks it’s the only way to ensure a good, well-paying job.

“Personally, I feel like I have no option,” she said.

Many graduating seniors say the recession and recovery has been a reality check, teaching them that the economy can falter and jobs aren’t guaranteed even if you have a college degree.

“Moving forward, I guess I’m not as innocent as maybe other college graduates have been in the past,” said Steve Heiss, 22, who graduated from the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign with degrees in accounting and business administration last weekend.

When Heiss entered college in 2009, seniors were having job offers rescinded. A stock ticker mounted in the school’s atrium seemed often to be ominously in the red.

He chose an accounting major in part because it seemed like one field where companies were still hiring. The plan paid off, and he secured a job with a major consulting company last November. He starts in late summer.

After watching older students go through the turmoil of the recession, Heiss said he doesn’t take for granted that he will have a way to pay off approximately $30,000 in student loan debt.

“I’ll say this: I’ve never felt more grateful to have a job,” he said.

The good news for the college class of 2013 is that the job market seems to be gradually improving. Students like Heiss report that more recruiters have returned to campus, and the national unemployment rate is ticking back down.

The bad news for young workers is that competition remains extremely tough. The unemployment rate for 20- to 24-year-olds was 13.1 percent in April, far higher than the overall unemployment rate of 7.5 percent.

Experts say a college degree should at least give the class of 2013 an edge over peers who didn’t go to college. A Pew Charitable Trusts analysis of government data through 2011 found that 21- to 24-year-olds with a college degree saw smaller drops in employment and wages than their peers with less education.

But even when some college seniors land a job, it’s not their dream gig.

Elizabeth Phan knows how fortunate she is to have a well-paying sales job with an upscale retailer. But Phan, 22, would be happy to be earning half of what she does now if she could snag a career-track job in the financial industry.

Even when she applies for entry-level positions, Phan said she finds herself competing against people who are much more experienced but also are desperate for work
.

“I have been looking for a while and it is getting quite frustrating, but I know I’m not the only one so that’s helping,” she said.

Phan will graduate this month from the Fashion Institute of Technology, part of the State University of New York, with a degree in international trade and marketing.

She started her college career in 2008 at a much pricier private school, but the financial crisis made her question whether the approximately $40,000 cost was worth it.

She left that school, moved to New York City, started at community college and eventually earned her degree at FIT. She’d like to get a master’s degree, but she doesn’t want the student loan debt.

“I refuse to take it on,” she said.

Simeon Bochev also might have taken a different college path if it weren’t for the recession.

When the housing market was hot, Bochev’s mother had invested in a vacation property in Colorado, figuring that she'd use the profits for his college education. Instead, the housing bust wiped out much of the home’s value just as Bochev was due to start school.

At the time, Bochev was deciding between University of Texas at Austin and George Washington University in Washington, D.C.

The stark difference in costs made it easy to decide to go to Austin to study engineering. But even with lower tuition costs, it was a struggle. He worked as a resident assistant and took paid internships. To help, his mother lived paycheck to paycheck.

Bochev, who immigrated with his parents to the United States from Bulgaria when he was just a baby, said his lifelong dream is to be the U.S. ambassador to Bulgaria. He figures that if he had gone to George Washington, he would have done political internships and ended up with a government or think tank job.

Instead, he got a bachelor’s degree in engineering and then took on $18,500 in student loan debt to finance a yearlong graduate program in finance. He’ll graduate this month and has accepted a job with a major consulting firm.

Bochev also has committed to starting his Master’s in Business Administration at Harvard in 2017. He said he hopes the MBA will provide a transition into public policy, putting him back on track to that ambassador job he had set his sights on.

“I don’t think I gave up the dream,” he said. “I just took a longer way around to it.”
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« Reply #8 on: May 15, 2013, 04:45:29 pm »

Just saw this 3.5 minute news clip.

http://www.nbcnews.com/id/21134540/vp=51889221&#51889221

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« Reply #9 on: May 24, 2013, 12:00:35 pm »

http://www.thestreet.com/story/11933126/1/millennials-wont-be-debt-free-until-they-die.html?puc=yahoo&cm_ven=YAHOO
Millennials Won't Be Debt Free Until They Die
5/24/13

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- How bad have things gotten for millennials?

Their financial situation is so grim that they may never get completely out of debt -- in their entire lives.

That's the conclusion of a study from Ohio State University.

The real culprit is credit card debt, which tends to stifle economic growth of younger Americans, primarily because they pay it off so slowly, the OSU study says. But millennials are paying off all their debts so slowly they may accumulate credit card debt well into their 70s and die still owing, researcher say.

"If what we found continues to hold true, we may have more elderly people with substantial financial problems in the future," says Lucia Dunn, a lead author of the study and an economics professor at Ohio State.

Perhaps -- let's go out on a limb here and say definitely -- that's a big reason millennials say debt is their "biggest financial concern" of their lives.

That dour sentiment comes from another study, this one from banking giant Wells Fargo (WFC_), which has 54% of millennials saying it's debt that keeps them up at night.

Another 42% of younger Americans say their debt is "overwhelming," double the percentage of baby boomers who feel the same way. And 51% of millennials say they aren't saving for retirement, primarily because they just don't have enough extra cash to start a savings program. Any extra cash they do have needs to go to pay down debt, 81% of millennials say.

"I am glad to see about half already saving for retirement, but we're also seeing that half of this generation has not started to save and is putting it off until the 30s," says Karen Wimbish, director of retail retirement at Wells Fargo. "I can't stress enough how important it is for this generation to start saving now -- the benefits of starting young can't be recreated later."

The trouble starts in their early 20s, with ever-skyrocketing student loan debt, Wells Fargo reports. More than 64% of millennials funded their college education through loans, compared with 29% of baby boomers. The report cites statistics from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which estimates total student loan debt topping $1 trillion last year, far and away the highest figure ever for U.S.-based college loans.

Yet younger Americans aren't turning to the stock market to grow their financial assets, a potentially big mistake given the historical returns from stocks, which tend to easily best the rate of inflation. About 52% of millennials (and 67% of younger women) in the Wells Fargo study say they are either "not very confident" or "not at all confident" in the stock market.

"But many are already in the stock market. While it is understandable that this generation is wary, millennials have time on their side and a long runway for future growth," Wimbish says.

Wells Fargo advises millennials to squeeze more money out of their budget and add it to their 401(k) plans or individual retirement accounts. The good news is that they have time for their retirement savings to grow.
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« Reply #10 on: June 25, 2013, 12:16:12 pm »

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/10-things-millennials-won-t-113327583.html
6/24/13
10 Things Millennials Won’t Tell You

For the babies of the baby boomers, it’s top 1% or bust


1. “Don’t like us? Blame our parents.”

From childhood through today, the distinct combination of cultural touchstones they’ve experienced has set them apart: They watched the Cosby Show, wore slap bracelets, wondered whether O.J. was guilty, worried about Y2K and waited for their Internet to dial-up so they could instant-message their friends.

They saw the World Trade Center towers crumble, and they struggled to find or keep a job in a tough economy. All before the age of 30 or so. Generation Y was born in the 1980s and ’90s—roughly those now between the ages of 18 and 34 (though experts disagree on the precise time frame). These so-called millennials are mostly the children of baby boomers, and at more than 82 million strong, they now outnumber the members of the boomer generation, according to the National Conference on Citizenship.

But the millennials have grown into adulthood with some personality problems that the boomers lacked, according to psychologists who measure such things, including high rates of narcissism, materialism, unrealistically inflated expectations and a startling lack of independence. American college students scored 30% higher on the 40-item Narcissistic Personality Index in 2006 than they did in 1979, for instance, according to a study led by psychologist Jean Twenge of San Diego State University.

And many experts lay the blame for some of these problems at the feet of the parents, specifically those who bought into the then-popular “everybody gets a trophy” school of child-raising—showering their kids with positive affirmations and telling them they could be anything they wanted to be, says Twenge, also the author of “Generation Me”.

The consequences of such ego-boosting can be seen in the discrepancy between millennials’ opinions of their abilities and their actual achievements: In 2009, 53% more American college students rated themselves “above average” in writing skills than did so in 1966; and 13% more did so for math, according to an analysis of the University of California Los Angeles’ annual survey. Meanwhile, SAT scores decreased 4% over the same period. Furthermore, some psychologists believe millennials’ overconfidence in their own abilities can translate into unrealistic expectations for their careers and their bank accounts. Another University of California study even found that students with enhanced beliefs about their academic prowess were less likely to graduate college.

Still, some millennial defenders argue that the generation is misunderstood, and that what comes off as aspirational and narcissistic is really just a reflection of millennials’ desire to make a big impact on and improve the world. “There are always going to be some who are lazy and entitled, but they are people who give back to society,” says Dan Schawbel, a millennial who founded a research firm focused on his own generation, and the author of “Promote Yourself: The New Rules for Career Success.”

2. “Never mind Occupy Wall Street. We want to be the 1%.”

They may have been the poster children for the Occupy Wall Street movement (at least when it first started), railing against the wealthiest 1% of Americans, but some studies suggest millennials may be the most aspirational generation yet.

Last year, a record 81% of college freshmen said that being wealthy was very important to them—double the amount of students who said so in 1966, according to an annual nationwide survey by UCLA’s Higher Education Research Institute. “There’s this general expectation of being rich and famous,” Twenge says. (Not all of that translates to reckless spending: Several recent studies have shown millennials are saving and investing more, and starting earlier, than boomers.) But millennials’ stated desires, which also include acquisition of cars, houses and boats, don’t always match up with their stated work ethic. Millennials place much less emphasis on having a job than on being rich, according to a recent San Diego State University study: 39% of 2007 high-school seniors (now in their 20s) surveyed said they didn’t want to work hard, while only 25% of baby boomers had said so at that age. “The discrepancy between work ethic and materialism has grown—that’s what really distinguished the millennials,” says psychologist Twenge, who co-wrote the study.

The delusions of grandeur may have some roots in reality, since there is a higher rate of millennials with fortunes they didn’t have to work for, relative to other generations. Indeed, Gen Y was the most likely generation to inherit money, with 42% of under-32 investors worth more than $1 million saying they inherited much of those funds, according to a new study by Spectrem Group, a wealth management and consulting firm, versus 28% of boomers. Those high net-worth millennials were also five times as likely as investors over 48 and twice as likely as Gen X-ers to attribute their wealth to “family connections,” while they were about 20% less likely than earlier generations to say their money came from “hard work.” And perhaps following in the footsteps of entrepreneurs like Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, fewer millennials who are now millionaires graduated from college, compared with the millionaires of previous generations.

But spending money they haven’t earned yet has also left many millennials saddled with debt: More than half of them say debt is their biggest financial concern, more so than rent and living expenses, according to a new Wells Fargo survey. In fact, 64% of millennials paid for college with student loans, while only 29% of boomers did, according to a Wells Fargo survey.

Student loans don’t account for all of those obligations, though: Some millennials (those born 1980 to 1984) will likely have nearly $6,000 more in credit card debt than their parents (those born 1950 to 1954) did by the time they’re 45, according to a 2013 study at Ohio State University. Social scientists debate the causes of those millennial debt burdens, with some blaming young people’s poor budgeting and overspending—Gen Y, after all, grew up with online banking and many never learned to balance a checkbook. Some psychologists and economists say millennials are another victim of relaxed lending policies even after the mortgage crisis, like accessible credit cards: “Part of it is simply that debt is easier to acquire these days,” says Lucia Dunn, the Ohio State economics professor who wrote the study. “Part of it is the reduced stigma of going into debt.”

3. “Republicans just don’t ‘get’ us.”

According to many political campaign analysts, President Obama has the millennials to thank for his job: Young voters hit the polls in droves during the 2008 election and most cast their ballots for him. And in 2012, 60% of millennials ages 18 to 29 voted for Obama; only 37% voted for Romney, according to exit polls by the National Election Pool. Voters over 40, on the other hand, were more likely to vote for Romney.

Each year, 4 million more millennials become eligible to vote; by 2020, after the last one joins the voting pool, the generation will represent nearly 40% of American voters, according to the Center for American Progress, an organization that generally advocates leftist policies. And a millennial vote has usually been a Democratic vote. If that left-leaning trend continues, some policy experts say, Republicans will have a tougher time winning offices on Capitol Hill. “Unless conservative candidates can moderate some of their positions, they’ll be facing an uphill battle in future elections,” says Anne Johnson, director of the youth-vote division at the Center for American Progress.

Republicans’ messages on gay marriage, abortion and immigration may fail to resonate because the generation tends to value social equality and diversity, according to studies by the Pew Research Center. Even conservative millennials have increasingly favored same-sex marriage: While only 17% of Republicans of all ages supported gay marriage in 2012, according to Pew, 47% of conservative college freshmen that year said they would support legalization, according to UCLA’s annual survey of college students. That’s a 10% increase in the number of conservative college students who said so in just one year, leading some to believe millennials are drifting further away from the G.O.P. toward the left: There is “a major disconnect between the [Republican] party’s conservative positions and young voters,” Johnson says.

While the Republican National Committee acknowledges the party “has work to do” to relate to millennials, spokeswoman Kirsten Kukowski says the party plans to win the youth vote by finding common ground on issues including “the stagnant economy, the skyrocketing cost of health care and unreasonably burdensome student loans.”

** This #3 should be moot - the millenials supporting the corrupt Democrat establishment are no different from their Baby Boomer/Churchianity parents voting for Reagan, the Bushes, and the corrupt GOP establishment - they pretty much did the same as Reagan and the Bushes pushed gun control, abortion rights, appointed pro-abortion/pro-sodomy justices, raised taxes several times, started illegal wars, cozied up to Islamic leaders, Police State agendas, involved in pagan occult practices, etc. IOW, the baton was passed from one side of the spectrum to the other.

4. “You might not want to hire us… ”

Upon graduation, many millennials found themselves in the midst of a recession and one of the unfriendliest job markets in history. And plenty of those who did manage to land a job soon fell prey to layoffs or saw their careers stalled by budget freezes that eliminated any possibility of promotion. Indeed, the unemployment rate was 13.2% among 20-to-24-year-olds in May, but only 5.3% for workers 55 and older, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Millennials’ new-age sense of office etiquette hasn’t helped them either: Many millennials go wrong by failing to put in enough effort to appear professional, showing up to an interview not properly cleaned and pressed, says Janette Marx, senior vice president at Adecco: “This is the generation of, ‘This is me, and I will go out and represent me true to who I really am.’ But there are certain situations where you need to take it up a notch.” Ind, ed, recruiting firm Adecco found in a 2012 study that hiring managers were three times as likely to hire a worker over the age of 50 as they were to hire millennials ages 18 to 32. And 75% of managers in Adecco’s survey said millennials’ biggest job-seeking mistake was wearing inappropriate clothing to the interview, while 70% cited “potentially compromising” social media content as the biggest mistake.

On the other hand, part of the problem, say employers and hiring specialists, is that many millennials don’t actually want to go to work, at least not in a traditional office setting. After millennial employees at consulting PricewaterhouseCooperss requested reduced work hours, the company offered them a compromise: They could cut back if they also took a pay cut. Several employees took the deal, says Anne Donovan, a human resources executive for the firm.

Meanwhile, a lot of millennials have one foot out the door at their day job, and moonlight on freelance projects after business hours: A recent survey of millennials using freelance job board Odesk found that 62% planned to quit their regular job within two years. That’s not surprising considering that overall, millennials stay with a company only two years on average, compared with five years for Gen X and seven years for baby boomers, according to Millennial Branding.

5. “…but soon, you might work for us.”

Human resources experts say that millennials will be playing leadership roles American corporations in the not too distant future — even though they don’t seem well-suited for it today. That’s why many employers are trying to accommodate their quirky, unconventional tastes.

About three years ago, PricewaterhouseCoopers began to notice a disturbing pattern: Its younger employees, most of whom had been hired right out of college, were resigning after just a few years, showing little interest in climbing up the corporate ladder there. Considering that millennials currently make up two-thirds of PwC’s 180,000-employee workforce, a proportion that is expected to grow to 80% by 2016, PwC saw the trend as a red flag: “It’s important to us from a business sustainability perspective to figure out what makes this generation tick,” says Donovan. The next generation is “well into our manager ranks,” says Donovan, “and it will very quickly be in our partner ranks as well.”

As millennials increasingly dominate in American companies, experts say, more employers can expect a sea change in corporate culture and policies. As a result of its findings, PwC has instituted more flexible work policies, like the ability to leave the office for a Zumba exercise class for a few hours during the firm’s busy season.

Of course, some experts believe a millennial corporate takeover is just another one of the generation’s unrealistic dreams. When asked about their five-year goals, some millennials tell the interviewer they want their job, or envision themselves as CEO, says Marx of Adecco, adding that managers perceive such statements as signs of naiveté: “You have to really deliver in the position you’re applying for first. It’s one step at a time up the ladder, not leaping from the bottom to the top all in one step.”

And there is evidence that millennials aren’t yet ready for the hot seat: Hiring managers also tell stories of job seekers who brought their parents to their job interview.

6. “We have drug problems.”

Never mind **** or ****: Prescription antidepressants are the drug that may have had the most profound effect on the millennial generation. Prozac came out in the late 80s, when many millennials were still children, and the release of the antidepressant coincided with a turning point in Americans’ mental health: Some reports suggest that Generation Y is less depressed than previous generations. Americans’ use of antidepressants increased fourfold between the late 80s and the first decade of the millennium, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Many of those antidepressants were prescribed to millennials, with nearly 4% of 12-to 17-year-olds and more than 6% of 18- to 39-year-olds taking them, according to CDC surveys from 2005 to 2008.

That rise also coincides with increases in attention deficit disorder drugs prescribed to young adults, prompting many psychiatrists, researchers, and children’s health advocates to worry that millennials are too medicated for their own good. Indeed, in recent years, 19-to-25-year-olds have increased their use of medicines per-person more than seniors, with the jump attributed to prescriptions for ADHD meds and antidepressants, according to the IMS Institute for Healthcare Informatics. In 2011, prescriptions declined for every age group except the 19-to 25-year-olds, who used 2% more.

But amid that debate over whether millennials are taking too many prescriptions, doctors are actually worrying that they aren’t taking enough of their meds. Millennials adhere even less to their drug regimens than their elders do, with 60% of 18- to 34-year-olds not taking their medication as prescribed, twice the proportion of those ages 65 and above, according to a 2013 study by HealthPrize, a company that incentivizes people to stick with their meds. More than half of millennials went off their meds entirely or never filled the prescriptions sometime in the past year, compared with only 16% of the over-65 crowd. And a third of millennials said they’d be better at keeping their pet on medications than themselves.

Being lazy with their meds could also hurt millennials physically, since they face high rates of obesity and diabetes.The amount of 12-to-19-year-olds with diabetes and prediabetes increased from 9% to 23% between 1999 and 2008, according to a CDC study published in 2012. But the good news is, some studies suggest they are also more likely than their elders to exercise.

** Obviously this part that ANYONE should be taking meds is absolutely wrong. But nonetheless the big picture is that the millennials generation was the first to get exposed to pharmaceutical drugs.

7. “We live with our parents. So what?”

The children of the baby boomers have another nickname: the boomerang generation. That’s because many of them are moving back in with their parents shortly after leaving the nest—and they can be hard to get rid of. More than 40% of 21- to 26-year-olds live with their folks, compared with less than a third of baby boomers when they were that age, according to a recent AARP survey. While living at home has often been a source of shame for 20-somethings, experts say the millennials don’t seem to mind, and many are in no hurry to leave. More than half of 25- to 34-year-olds living at home don’t pay rent, according to a survey by Pew Social Research & Trends. To the debt-saddled and often-jobless millennials, their childhood bedroom might seem like paradise compared with renting an apartment while they aren’t earning a paycheck.

But lack of rent money isn’t the only thing tethering millennials to the nest. By moving back home, they get amenities that rarely come with a cheap starter apartment—including helicopter parents who might be just as eager to do their kids’ laundry and oversee their job search as they were to drive them to soccer practice when they were younger. The Pew survey found that more than 78% of millennials living with their parents were satisfied with their living arrangements.

Financial experts warn, however, that the living arrangement isn’t necessarily a bargain for the parents hosting their grown-up kid, which advisers estimate can cost tens of thousands of dollars extra per year. More than a quarter of parents still supporting kids age 18 to 39 have since taken on debt.

8. “Mom and Dad: Don’t buy us a car.”

Millennials, unwedded to a particular brand and savvy online shoppers, have presented a conundrum for auto makers, which have traditionally hooked buyers at the dealership and often kept customers for life. “I don’t think you’re seeing as much of, ‘My father worked at the Chevy factory, so I’m going to buy five generations of Silverados,’” says Akshay Anand, an analyst at Kelley Blue Book, the car review guide.

But millennials also seem less eager to get behind the wheel: While it’s true that Americans overall have been driving slightly less in the past few years than they did in previous years, 16- to 34-year-olds drove a whopping 23% fewer miles per capita in 2009 than they did in 2001, according to the National Household Travel Survey, conducted by the Federal Highway Administration. The decrease isn’t just due to a lack of jobs to commute to, either: Driving declined 16% among working millennials. Fewer of them are getting their licenses and buying cars: Only 27% of new cars were bought by 21- to 34-year-olds in 2011, down from 38% in 1985, according to CNW Research, which tracks the auto industry.

A lot of the problem, say auto market analysts, is millennials’ lack of funds for car payments, leading them to choose intermediate options like car-sharing service Zipcar. To lure younger car buyers, car makers including Dodge and Hyundai have offered crowdfunding programs—online fundraising platforms where people can solicit donations from friends and family—to finance car purchases: Hyundai has said that nearly two-thirds of its 1,600 crowdfunded cars sold last year went to drivers 35 and under. But it’s unclear whether money would get more millennials back in the driver’s seat, as the generation has shown a penchant for alternative forms of transportation, according to the FHA survey: While driving dropped among 16- to 34-year-olds, they took 24% more bike trips, and traveled 40% more miles on public transit in 2009 than in 2001. “I don’t know if they’re saying forget cars or just, ‘We’ll figure out cars later once we’re more secure with our financial situation,” Anand says.

9. “We’re practically professional students.”

Some millennials have found a way to avoid the bleak job market: Stay in school a little longer—or a lot longer. More than 81% of college students say they are interested in going to grad school after college, according to a survey by consultancy Millennial Branding.

With bachelor’s degrees more prevalent among millennials than among any other generation, experts say an advanced degree might give the young workers an edge in the job hunt. More than 63% of Gen-Y employees have a bachelor’s degree, according to a 2012 study by benefits research firm PayScale and Millennial Branding. Over the past three decades, the proportion of 18- to 24-year-olds enrolling in college jumped from less than 26% in 1980 to more than 41% in 2010, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. “A college degree is like the new high school diploma,” says Schawbel.

But millennials are finding that those advanced degrees don’t always pay off, either. Of last year’s law school graduates, only 56% landed full-time legal jobs within nine months, according to the American Bar Association.

And even when they enter the workforce, millennials often look for workplaces that feel a little like Fraternity Row. By serving beer in the office, companies like Yelp and Google will appeal to Gen-Y workers, Schawbel says: “It’s like an extension of college for them.” Of course, even workplaces trying to become more millennial-friendly aren’t ready to bring the bar into the office. “Do I think we’ll ever be riding scooters down the hall?” says Donovan of PwC. “I don’t think we’ll do that, but I absolutely know that we’re looking for our space to be much more campus-feeling.”

10. “Companies that neglect us will be sorry.”

Millennials might not have as much money in their pocketbooks as older shoppers, but companies often treat them as VIP customers. That’s because millennials have the highest expectations for service, say customer relations experts, and they also tend to complain the loudest: About 60% of 18- to 24-year-olds take to Facebook, Twitter and other social networks when they have an issue with a company, twice as many as among the 65 and older crowd, according to a recent survey by NM Incite, a social media research and consulting firm. “If they’ve got a problem, they want to shout about it,” says Joshua March, CEO of Conversocial, a firm that helps brands interact with customers on social media. Millennials “are much more likely to kick up a fuss, publicly, and that can quickly damage the reputation of the brand,” March says.

Of course, the social media impact cuts both ways, as some millennials have learned the hard way when their social sharing has cost them a job (as in the case of the Taco Bell employee who was recently fired for posting on Facebook a photo of himself licking a stack of tacos).

But millennials are also forcing companies to step up their game, as they tend to be demanding consumers: 42% of 18- to 34-year-olds expect companies to respond on social media within 12 hours of a complaint or comment, according to Nielsen. (The study didn’t report on the expectations of other age groups.) As a result, companies are trying to please millennials before their gripes go viral—giving millennials more power as consumers, says March: “The ball is very much in their court.”

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« Reply #11 on: June 25, 2013, 12:21:29 pm »

Mat 12:26  And if Satan cast out Satan, he is divided against himself; how shall then his kingdom stand?
Mat 12:27  And if I by Beelzebub cast out devils, by whom do your children cast them out? therefore they shall be your judges.

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« Reply #12 on: June 26, 2013, 05:55:03 pm »

10. “Companies that neglect us will be sorry.”

Millennials might not have as much money in their pocketbooks as older shoppers, but companies often treat them as VIP customers. That’s because millennials have the highest expectations for service, say customer relations experts, and they also tend to complain the loudest: About 60% of 18- to 24-year-olds take to Facebook, Twitter and other social networks when they have an issue with a company, twice as many as among the 65 and older crowd, according to a recent survey by NM Incite, a social media research and consulting firm. “If they’ve got a problem, they want to shout about it,” says Joshua March, CEO of Conversocial, a firm that helps brands interact with customers on social media. Millennials “are much more likely to kick up a fuss, publicly, and that can quickly damage the reputation of the brand,” March says.

Here's another example of how powerful social media can be - not saying everyone who uses facebook/twitter are millenials, but nonetheless look how these tools can be used very deceptively in terms of getting the millenials crowd(for the most part) on board with certain agendas...

http://news.yahoo.com/filibuster-texas-abortion-bill-makes-star-wendy-davis-184503937.html;_ylt=AlE0sMOo1uI6snA0BI2Opvz59XQA;_ylu=X3oDMTVxMmIzdnZkBGNjb2RlA2dtcHRvcDEwMDBwb29sd2lraXVwcmVzdARtaXQDQXJ0aWNsZSBNaXhlZCBMaXN0IE5ld3MgZm9yIFlvdSB3aXRoIE1vcmUgTGluawRwa2cDMjQ4MzQ4OGQtY2M4NS0zNTQ4LTg1MTktZmVkY2QyY2IxNGRhBHBvcwMyBHNlYwNuZXdzX2Zvcl95b3UEdmVyA2NkNzFmZDAwLWRlOTEtMTFlMi04ZGRiLWE4OWQ2NTZiOWRhOA--;_ylg=X3oDMTBhYWM1a2sxBGxhbmcDZW4tVVM-;_ylv=3
Filibuster of Texas abortion bill makes a star of Wendy Davis. Will that last?

A Democratic state senator in heavily Republican Texas, Wendy Davis rocketed to global social media prominence on the strength of her filibuster and the failure of the abortion bill she opposed.

6/26/13

In less than 13 hours, Wendy Davis rocketed from being a Democratic state senator little known beyond heavily Republican Texas to a global social media celebrity, as her filibuster helped defeat a major abortion bill with a last-minute boost from hundreds of noisy supporters packed into the State capitol.

Ms. Davis’ raised profile – her Twitter account jumped from 1,200 to more than 46,000 followers in a day – and the defeat of a stroke-of-midnight vote on the bill by the deafening roar of supporters in the gallery, are moments that Texas Democrats are relishing, but ones that may not last long, analysts say.

Republican Gov. Rick Perry could call another legislative session with more time to pass the abortion law, and Davis faces an uphill battle if she wants to channel the attention into a bid for statewide office.

“It's over. It's been fun. But see you soon.” Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst told reporters after the bill's defeat early Wednesday, hinting that Governor Perry may soon call legislators back for another 30-day special session.

Davis earned substantial exposure during her 11-hour filibuster. Twitter reports that there were at least 730,000 tweets about the filibuster on Tuesday, with 5,776 tweets per minute at the height of the drama around 11:58 p.m. central time as Senate Republicans were trying for a last-minute vote before the midnight deadline. Hashtags including #StandwithWendy and #WendyDavis trended worldwide, while a YouTube live stream drew more than 180,000 viewers.

“Something special is happening in Austin tonight,” tweeted President Obama’s official twitter account at about 8 p.m. central time Tuesday as Davis entered the ninth hour of her attempt to block passage of the bill, which would have banned abortions after 20 weeks and closed nearly every abortion clinic in the state.

Some political analysts were impressed with Davis’ star-power Tuesday, but question whether she can sustain a lasting statewide or national role.

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« Reply #13 on: June 27, 2013, 02:17:16 am »

Quote
Wendy Davis rocketed to global social media prominence on the strength of her filibuster and the failure of the abortion bill she opposed.

No, she got the attention because of her looks. They knew who to pick.  Roll Eyes
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« Reply #14 on: July 28, 2013, 06:55:45 am »

http://news.yahoo.com/young-gop-leaders-see-substantive-changes-082441549.html
Young GOP leaders see need for substantive changes
7/28/13

MOBILE, Ala. (AP) — Republicans hoping to reach beyond the party's white, aging core must do more than retool campaign strategy and tactics, say young GOP leaders pressing elected officials to offer concrete policies to counter Democratic initiatives.

"It's very easy to just say no, and there are times where it's appropriate to say no," said Jason Weingartner of New York, the newly elected chairman of the Young Republican National Federation. "But there are times where you need to lead and present ideas on the issues of the day."

Weingartner and other under-40 activists at a recent national young Republican gathering in Mobile said their party must follow an all-of-the-above approach. Their assessment goes beyond the more general prescriptions that many party leaders, including Reince Priebus, the Republican National Committee chairman, have offered since November, when Republicans lost the popular vote for the fifth time in the past six presidential elections.

The latest loss was due in large measure to President Barack Obama's advantage over Republican nominee Mitt Romney among younger and nonwhite voters.

For the most part, Priebus has avoided policy recommendations for elected Republicans and says the Republican platform, a political document that's supposed to reflect the core values of the party, isn't the problem.

Weingartner and many of his colleagues agree with Priebus on the platform, and they praise the "Growth and Opportunity Project" that Priebus outlined in March.

But the young Republicans' ideas are more explicit than the chairman's blueprint and stand in contrast to a hyperpartisan Congress where many Republicans tailor their actions to please primary voters who loathe cooperation with Democrats.

Weingartner said House Republicans, who won't pass the Democratic-led Senate's version of an immigration overhaul, should pass their own version that at least "streamlines and expands" legal slots for foreign students and workers.

For now, he said, that would sidestep Republicans who demand border security and Democrats who demand a citizenship path for immigrants already in the country illegally.

On health care, Weingartner said that besides regularly voting to repeal Obama's law, the GOP should emphasize its own ideas such as buying insurance across state lines, while better explaining the Affordable Care Act's cost shift onto younger, healthy individuals.

On same-sex marriage and abortion, young GOP leaders say Republicans should tolerate a range of views, even while maintaining a socially conservative identity. Some of these activists say their party must tread lightly after the Supreme Court recently threw out the most powerful part of the Voting Rights Act, the law that became a major turning point in black Americans' struggle for equal rights and political power.

"We don't have to lose our principles," said Angel Garcia, who leads the Young Republicans in Chicago, Obama's hometown. "But we have to have a conversation on all these issues so we don't leave Democrats to say we're just old white men and racist, bigoted homophobes."

Chris Reid, a Birmingham, Ala., lawyer, said the GOP has to become more inclusive. "I get really sick listening to people say it's all or nothing in order to be a good Republican," he said.

The GOP still controls the U.S. House, holds 30 governor's seats and stands a reasonable chance of regaining control of the U.S. Senate in the 2014 elections. But 2012 presidential returns justify concern.

Whites, who represent a shrinking share of the electorate, accounted for about 9 out of 10 Romney votes. Obama won Latinos by about 44 percentage points and African-Americans by 85 points. Those groups together accounted for almost one-quarter of all voters.

Among whites, younger age ranges trended more toward Obama. Voters from 18 to 29 years old opted for the president over Romney by a 60-37 margin. Among those age 30 to 44, Obama claimed 52 percent, 7 percentage points more than Romney.

Some Republican strategists say that Obama, as the first black president, set the high-water mark for Democrats among nonwhite voters. Weingartner said the 51-year-old president twice faced much older opponents, a circumstance that could be reversed in 2016. Of several potential GOP candidates, only Texas Gov. Rick Perry, 63, is older than 50.

The Democrats' leading hopefuls are Vice President Joe Biden, 70, and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, 65.

"We have youth and enthusiasm on our side this time," Weingartner said, though he added that it would be foolish to pin GOP hopes on age.

Speaking to delegates, Priebus promised a "50-state strategy" that involves hiring workers to engage minority communities. "We can't win if we just show up four months before a presidential election every four years," he said.

Garcia, the Chicago Republican, said that model, patterned after Obama's use of neighborhood-based networks, will identify new supporters. But he said the outreach needs a foundation of specifics.

Expanding legal immigration, Garcia said, could make it harder for Democrats to frame Republicans as "anti-immigrant," a label several Republicans said Romney cemented by advocating "self-deportation." After remaking legal immigration, Weingartner said House leaders could realize, as part of a border security plan, that the border will never be completely secure, while getting Democrats to consent to a "path to legal status" rather than a "path to citizenship."

That approach, both men said, would increase the likelihood that Latinos listen to Republican arguments for low taxes, light regulation and individual opportunity.

Darius Foster, a black business consultant in Alabama, said he encounters similar trust issues among African-Americans, who have overwhelmingly supported Democrats since the civil rights movement.

"I never have to defend Republican principles," he said. "I have to defend Republicans." That's even harder, he said, since neighboring Shelby County, south of Birmingham, successfully challenged part of the Voting Rights Act.

A strategy for social issues isn't as clear, given that younger voters generally are more liberal on those issues than is the GOP platform.

Of course, there's no guarantee of nuanced approaches from elected officials.

Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., told delegates that strong opposition to the Senate's immigration push will help Republicans win working-class votes because some wages would fall at first in an expanded labor pool.

Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley urged House Republicans to "stand strong" against Obama.

Rep. Martha Roby of Alabama, 37, told her fellow Young Republicans that a major problem is "low-information voters ... who have not been exposed to our arguments." She added: "We win not by changing our policies but by spending more time and energy convincing people we are right."

All three got standing ovations.
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« Reply #15 on: July 29, 2013, 03:48:49 pm »

For the record, no, I'm not saying all Millennials/Gen Xers are bad(I myself am a Gen Xer, and we have a couple of faithful KJV believers on this forum that are Millenials), but nonetheless whenever I read these articles, I can't help to think how scripture is coming to light, especially in these last days we're potentially living in.

Mat 24:34  Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled.
Mat 24:35  Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.


Mat 24:48  But and if that evil servant shall say in his heart, My lord delayeth his coming;
Mat 24:49  And shall begin to smite his fellowservants, and to eat and drink with the drunken;
Mat 24:50  The lord of that servant shall come in a day when he looketh not for him, and in an hour that he is not aware of,
Mat 24:51  And shall cut him asunder, and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.


http://www.cnn.com/2013/07/27/politics/young-republicans
7/29/13
The Republicans of the future?

Mobile, Alabama (CNN) -- Tyler Deaton stands by a doorway outside Fathoms, a hotel patio lounge in this coastal town in the Deep South.

Deaton, 27, is a strong believer in low taxes, fiscal responsibility and civic involvement. He attended a Christian liberal arts school. He is a Republican.

He's also gay.

He's been in a relationship for several years, having met his partner at Wheaton College, a Christian institution outside Chicago. Raised in Alabama, Deaton moved to New Hampshire because it approves of same-sex marriage and has no income tax or sales tax.

This evening, Deaton is helping host a reception to raise interest in same-sex marriage issues among Young Republicans, who are gathered in Mobile for their national convention. Deaton is campaign manager for the young conservatives' arm of Freedom to Marry, a national gay rights group.

On Deaton's side of the doorway, things are going well. Deaton and his colleagues have collected more than 50 e-mail addresses -- about a sixth of the total number of conventioneers, he says.

But there aren't so many on the other side. All told, perhaps two dozen people made their way to the outdoor patio, munching on the abundant food and cashing in their drink tickets.

Even among the visitors there are those who do not seem completely comfortable; one man, after exclaiming how great the party is and his hopes for more approval of same-sex marriage, declined to give his name and hustled away at the sign of a reporter's notebook.

It hasn't been much different at the convention as a whole. Despite Freedom to Marry statistics that indicate most Republicans under 50 approve of same-sex marriage, the group hit some roadblocks with convention organizers.

Deaton's group wanted a panel discussion of LGBT issues on the official convention agenda. That request was turned down. It wanted to be a sponsor of the convention. That was also rejected. After deciding to have a reception and booking a slot, the scheduling ended up clashing with gatherings of various state groups.

It's OK, says Deaton, neatly dressed in suit and tie, in a voice that hints of his Southern upbringing.

"We're not in this to make enemies or to fight," he said. Progress, he admits, will take time.

It's a lesson he hopes the GOP is learning.

"The GOP has become too much of a club that defines itself by who it's leaving out," he says. "And I think the GOP has to do a better job of defining itself by its ideas, and letting anybody who shares those ideas come in and be a part of it."

A 'get off my lawn' attitude

The Republican Party is in a race with the future.

Though it holds power in the House of Representatives and a majority of statehouses, its demographics, for now, are going the wrong direction.

The country is becoming more urban and diverse, two details that favor Democrats. In 2012, blacks and Hispanics overwhelmingly went for the president; Obama also got 55% of the women's vote, 60% of voters under 30 and almost 70% of the vote in cities with 500,000 people or more.

Worse than the numbers is the impression they make. In a recent study, another young GOP group, the College Republicans, put it bluntly: the GOP is seen as "closed-minded, racist, rigid, (and) old-fashioned."

The Young Republicans cut a somewhat different figure than today's national GOP. They're not just younger -- members range from college age to 40 -- but less doctrinaire as well, preferring to focus on economics and civic involvement.

The YR -- the full name is the Young Republican National Federation -- describes itself as "the premier Republican grassroots organization in the nation." Formerly an arm of the Republican National Committee, it's now an independent, all-volunteer group, though it still provides campaign support for conservative causes and Republican candidates.

A number of noted politicians, including current House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy, R-California, and former Tennessee Gov. Don Sundquist, have come from its ranks. Volunteer executive director Soren Dayton estimates 70,000 people belong to YR chapters across the country.

Much of the group's work is in civic affairs. "It's not just social networking," says Dayton, who works as a media and public affairs consultant. "It's people who serve."

The group includes young professionals in their 20s and 30s and reflects a shift into more libertarian territory.

John Head, a Chicago-based business development consultant, is an example of the new breed.

"Social issues should not be the main focus over fiscal issues," says Head, nattily dressed for the convention in a seersucker suit and brown-and-white saddle shoes. "We have a debt problem, we have a health care problem whether you agree or disagree with what's coming, and those are things we should focus on."

He sums it up succinctly: "I'm very involved on the fiscal side, and I'm 'get off my lawn' on the social side."

It's a small-government attitude shared by many youthful conservatives, says Arizona State University professor Donald Critchlow, a historian of the conservative movement.

"There's a very, very strong libertarian voice among the young," he says. "They're very liberal -- if you want to use that term -- on social issues: gay rights, abortion, marijuana and war, those kinds of social issues that would put them on the left side of the spectrum. But they're coming from a libertarian perspective."

These are folks who backed Ron Paul for president, or ended up voting for Obama because they disliked the GOP's stand on social issues, he says.

Republicans like Deaton stay because they want to help the party resolve that tension.

"If you're going to be involved in something political, my goal has been to really be involved," he says. "It would be harder for me if I was a Republican and not doing something to change the Republican Party."

Red meat and prayers

The main activities this weekend include electing new officers, renewing contacts and planning for the future. But there are bits of the boisterousness seen every four years at the parties' presidential nominating conventions. The delegations tried to outdo one another in highlighting their state's accomplishments at roll call (Head brought a blow-up Stanley Cup to showcase his Chicago Blackhawks' victory in the NHL playoffs). Some delegations hosted parties and social gatherings.

There was also plenty of classic conservative red meat to be chewed. Of the handful of vendors' tables, one was sponsored by former Sen. Rick Santorum's organization, Patriot Voices. Another featured flyers from the libertarian Cato Institute for an e-book called "Replacing Obamacare." One man hawked copies of his book, "A Time to Kill: The Myth of Christian Pacifism."

Large meetings opened with prayers, some of them in Jesus' name, followed by the Pledge of Allegiance. In speeches, there were invocations of Obamacare and the 2009 bailouts, pointed mentions of the IRS, the use of "Democrat" (instead of "Democratic") as an adjective, and proud defenses of states' rights and tax cuts.

For many, the convention was also an opportunity to talk about ways of moving the party forward after the losses of the 2012 election campaign.

The lack of diversity was obvious at the convention's general gatherings. The majority of the 300-plus attendees were men; just a handful were Hispanic or African-American.

The YR's outreach committee has been trying to find ways of expanding the tent. At a discussion, the group suggested appealing to minorities by stressing the GOP's economic message of entrepreneurship and fiscal responsibility.

Outgoing YR Chair Lisa Stickan, an attorney and former prosecutor from Cleveland, believes this is a winning strategy.

"I think there's this misconception that younger people are only looking at social issues," Stickan said. "You have a lot of people graduating college who are in serious debt and are having trouble finding a job, and if you asked them about social issues, they would say, 'I'm having trouble surviving here.'"

Stickan, 35, talks with the friendly demeanor and flattened vowels of her native Midwest. She's been active with the party since law school and identified with it before then. But hers is a Main Street, grass-roots Republicanism, focused on civic involvement and fiscal rectitude. She serves on the city council of Highland Heights, a Cleveland suburb.

"I enjoy that because it's not a partisan role," she says. "I'm there in the capacity of good-government services and working with the public."

Though it's important to mention the Obama administration's faults, she says, she believes the Republicans are ill-served by Washington mudslinging. She wants the party to "step in, in a positive manner," and listen to voters.

"I am from a swing state, so I talk to a lot of people who are in the middle, (but) that's not what they want to hear about," she says. "You have a serious situation where people cannot get food on the table, cannot bring a paycheck home. That's a problem."

'You're not alone'

Indeed, Stickan adds, the GOP has to keep up with the times. That means using Twitter, Facebook and YouTube to stay in touch with voters. The Democrats have been making good use of online media since at least the Howard Dean days; the Republicans are doing better but need to do more, she says.

"The social media, particularly for some low-information voters or younger voters, is important, just to keep up with the trends," Stickan says.

Angel Garcia, a Chicago attorney, shrewdly used the technology to help build his moribund local YR chapter from a handful of people to several hundred.

The first step, Garcia said, was getting noticed.

"There was nothing here, so we had to take advantage of some natural strengths," said Garcia, 38. That meant working the media, tapping into wealthy donors and getting the word out to transplants from elsewhere in the Midwest.

So the club did a marketing campaign, posting ads on mass transit, billboards, even in bar restrooms. During the 2012 presidential campaign, the group made a YouTube video -- a parody of "Call Me Maybe" -- that received more than 150,000 views and earned the club a mention on the Huffington Post. It has maintained aggressive Twitter and Flickr accounts. The club now has a mailing list of thousands.

"We literally said, 'You're not alone,'" Garcia says. "That was really the turning point."

The publicity was nothing new for Garcia, who likes the exposure. When the GOP needed a face to talk about Latino issues in Chicago, Garcia became the go-to guy. With his cleanly shaved head, nimble patter and ever-present cell phone, Garcia fits comfortably into a white-collar demographic; he's an MBA who spent several years at the Chicago Board of Trade before deciding to practice law.

But he has a classic immigrant story: His parents moved to the United States from Mexico in the early '70s for work in the steel mills along Lake Michigan, and his father later started an auto repair business. It was small-business issues that helped turn Garcia into a Republican, he says. He entered the law partly because he saw a niche for a Spanish-speaking attorney. He characterizes himself as a "neighborhood lawyer."

'An anti-, anti-, anti- image'

Many of the Latino Young Republicans -- a small but notable group at the convention -- talk about their membership with mixed feelings. On the one hand, they believe in the party's small-government, faith-and-family principles. On the other, they bristle at some of the anti-immigrant talk within the party.

Texas YR official Chris Carmona made the point explicitly at one breakout session. Thanks to party members' harsh words, Republicans are thought of in the Hispanic community as anti-immigrant, anti-family and anti-religious, he observes. "We have an anti-, anti-, anti- image of everything possible in the Hispanic community."

Texas delegate Artemio Muniz expands on that point. Muniz, a 32-year-old from Houston, is the son of illegal immigrants. His family was on welfare, sold chips at the ballpark and took items from trash bins to sell.

"We started at the bottom," he says. "We know what bootstrapping means." His parents were given amnesty as part of a 1986 immigration reform bill signed by Ronald Reagan.

He grimaces when he thinks about how some Republicans treat Latinos.

"I've been at Tea Party meetings where the lady is saying, 'Let's deport them all,' and the lady that's serving her is an illegal immigrant bringing her nacho chips."

But he became a Republican, he says, because the party represents promise. The Mexican community has pride, he says, and its beliefs fit with the conservatism of the Republican Party and its leaders.

"Reagan was a legit guy that understood the heart," he says. "(George W.) Bush as well. He understood. He had credibility. He was authentic. He knew the experience of being a Texan."

But the GOP has to recognize the problems of the working class, he says.

"It's like any other blue-collar neighborhood," he says. "It's not a Hispanic thing necessarily. Your guy that's living paycheck to paycheck can be any race, and here's a party saying we're going to cut programs. They want to know, what are you going to do to help the family? It's more of being in touch with hard-working people."

His YR colleague Garcia has mixed feelings about the congressional stalemate over the immigration reform bill, which was passed by the Senate in late June but is being held up in the House. He'd like to see a narrower bill, one that could get more Republican support. "Democrats moving the goalposts makes that less likely," he says.

But, he admits, Republicans still look bad.

"At the end of the day I'm a pragmatist, and I understand politics," he says. "And I think we've done a poor job framing the issue."

The 'Akin effect'

The communications problems also apply to women.

Christina Goodlander of the D.C. delegation summed up the issue in two words: "Akin effect" -- a reference to Todd Akin, the Missouri U.S. Senate candidate who made controversial comments about "legitimate ****" and pregnancy.

While noting that Akin's words were "pretty horrible," "those comments were played over and over again nationally, and we were portrayed as troglodytes," she said. "That's not what we're about, but that became the narrative and the Democrats played that brilliantly."

Stickan wishes more people would pay attention to strength of women in the GOP.

"I think there's this perception that Republicans don't engage women enough, or that we're not listening to women," she says. "I've been talked to and listened to by many campaigns. You may have someone who goes out there and makes a comment, and just because he's one person doesn't mean he speaks for the whole party."

Moreover, she adds, the party has a good bench, including South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez and others at local levels.

"We have some amazing candidates being elected all over the country. I think it's important to showcase them," she says.

One of those women, Rep. Martha Roby of Alabama, gave a stemwinder at a convention lunch. The 36-year-old Roby, a Young Republican herself, exhorted her listeners to push their way to the front.

"Now, more than ever, our party needs bright young people engaged in meaningful conversation, with fresh ways to implement our conservative ideas," she said. "Now is your turn."

In an interview later, Roby reiterated her hope that more young Republicans will get involved, but emphasized that she sees the problem to be less a matter of Republican principles than Republican messaging.

"It's not about becoming Democrat-lite, it's about staying true to the conservative principles we hold dear," she said. "But we have to find a different way to talk about it."

Reaching across the aisle

Whether the Young Republicans will change the GOP is an open question. Some have plans to run for office; others expect to stay behind the scenes, working on grass-roots organizing or consulting.

And though there appear to be fewer differences among Young Republicans than in the national GOP, social issues can still cause friction. One Southern delegate was enthusiastic about the focus on entrepreneurship, but his voice quieted when he pondered pitching same-sex marriage to his state.

It's a longstanding split. George W. Bush found it challenging to unite the party on immigration. His father found favor with religious conservatives but lost the fiscally minded with the 1990 budget deal. Indeed, about the only GOP politician who's succeeded in bridging the chasm, says historian Critchlow, is Ronald Reagan. He dealt with various conservative blocs both as California governor and president and showed a willingness to talk with Democrats -- whether it was the legislature of California Speaker Jesse Unruh or the House of Tip O'Neill.

Still, the Young Republicans are determined to try to expand the party's base -- even to the point of metaphorically crossing the aisle. Encouraged by Stickan, the outreach committee struck an agreement with the National Urban League -- an African-American advocacy group that favors Democrats -- to partner on an Urban League program.

The Urban League runs entrepreneurship centers in 10 cities focused on improving business skills and mentoring among minorities, and the Young Republicans saw that the program aligned with their own principles, said Darius Foster, a Birmingham consultant and member of the Alabama Young Republicans.

"We might disagree with 85 or 90% of what they do, but that 10%, we can use that as inroads with the Urban League and their members," said Christopher Sanders, a Young Republican from Atlanta. The Georgia capital is going to be one of the partnership's test cities, along with Houston and Cleveland.

The YRs also paid tribute to the social-media and outreach activities of Garcia's Chicago chapter by recognizing it as the year's "outstanding large club," an award Garcia said was unexpected.

As he nears 40 and aging out of the Young Republicans, he's taking on one more job -- Midwest regional coordinator -- and believes the party is primed to make inroads.

"I've been going to these things since I could vote, and this is the first time I'm hearing people from the top of the party down talk about issues and talk about actual strategies that are actionable," Garcia says. "We have work to do, but it's more diverse, and more representative of what the party really is, than what I've seen."

Deaton, the gay Young Republican from New Hampshire, hopes that's true. He wants action, not just talk. The concept some national leaders have pushed -- "better messaging" -- drives him up a wall.

"What they're saying is there's actually nothing wrong with the Republican Party. We just don't talk about it the right way," he says. "But the problem is that some of the beliefs are also wrong. I think Americans are hungry for fiscal conservatism. I think, though, that they want a bit of a more humble foreign policy than what the GOP has been offering for the last decade, and they do want the Republican Party to take a new approach on social issues.

"It doesn't just mean repackaging or putting a new label on it," he says. "You have to change the recipe."
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« Reply #16 on: August 14, 2013, 12:26:03 pm »

I know Obamacare is putting a big hit on the nation's economy, but let's NOT forget other factors thrown in as well - for one, this "consumerism" economy(which is nothing more than Babylonian idolatry) that started in the 1980's has played a big part of the collapse of the global economy over the long haul. And again, we have a couple of Millennials here that are faithful in our Lord Jesus Christ and the KJV(and I'm a Generation Xer myself who was a long-time slacker before I got saved), but nonetheless you can't deny how our nation's institutions and the news/entertainment media have played a big part in influencing the behaviors and attitudes of the latter generations of this world.

Ultimately, there's been many factors that have played a big part, and the seeds have been planted many years ago(and not just recently under Obama).

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/how-gen-y-workers-miss-out-on-money-perks-2013-08-14?siteid=yhoof2
Aug. 14, 2013, 11:15 a.m. EDT

How Gen Y workers miss out on money, perks
Millennials have more leverage than they realize, study suggests


The millennial generation tends to measure job tenure in months, not years, changing employers as often as they change toothbrushes. The high turnover rate is expensive for companies — employers estimate that it costs them $15,000 to $25,000 to replace every 20-something who leaves the company, according to a new survey.

Almost half of companies experience high millennial turnover right now,” says Dan Schawbel, founder of Millennial Branding, which conducted the study along with by Beyond.com, a career networking site.

The cost of refilling these positions is expected to climb as millennial employees, those roughly between the ages of 18 and 34, make up a bigger share of the workforce — and move up the ranks. Projections show 20-something workers will make up 36% of the American workforce by 2014, and 75% of the global workplace by 2025. Half of companies surveyed reported that the average salary for a millennial is between $30,000 and $50,000, while 15% of the companies revealed that the average salary for a millennial is at least $50,000.

The figures mean employers have a financial incentive to retain their promising younger workers, and that those employees may have more clout than they realize when it comes to negotiating for a raise or promotion, says Schawbel.

Consulting firm PwC, for instance, surveyed its workforce this year after noticing that many of the firm’s youngest employees were leaving the company after just a few years on the job. The firm created a list of recommendations for changes some companies can make to better retain younger workers — or that employees can ask for before they accept a competing job offer. Here is a look at some of the changes recommended by PwC and other career experts.

Alternative work schedules. The PwC survey found that 66% of their Gen Y workers wanted to shift their work schedules. It also found that 15% of male employees and 21% of female employees would take a pay cut and fewer promotions in exchange for working fewer hours. PwC responded by encouraging teams to let some workers come in earlier or work later so that they could attend personal events that are important to them, says Anne Donovan, a human resources leader for PwC. “We have an environment that is looser and more flexible in terms of where the work is done,” she says.

Location, location, location. Some employees can get approval to work from home sometimes, or even from another city, as long as it doesn’t interfere with the company’s deadlines, says Schawbel. He recalls the example of one friend who wanted to live in New York and got approval from his employer to work full time from the city, even though the company was headquartered somewhere else. And 37% of Gen Y workers surveyed by PwC said they wanted the opportunity to work overseas, compared with 28% of nonmillennial employees. As a result, the company is brainstorming ways to make international opportunities available to employees earlier in their careers, says Donovan.

Increased feedback and mentoring. About 40% of companies surveyed by Beyond.com and Millennial branding said they are working to retain younger workers by introducing mentoring programs. PwC also found that many of its younger employees value teamwork and feedback on how they can improve their performance. “It’s much more real time coaching that they’re looking for,” says Donovan, adding that managers are encouraged to regularly discuss performance with employees to offer guidance. Workers might consider asking to be paired with a mentor who can help them identify new skills they should learn, says Schawbel. They should also ask to be given expanded responsibilities so that they can test out other roles within the company before they decide to move on, says Schawbel. “If you just keep doing what you did yesterday you’ll get stuck,” and feel more pressured to leave, he says.
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« Reply #17 on: August 14, 2013, 12:29:10 pm »

Eph 2:1  And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins;
Eph 2:2  Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience:
Eph 2:3  Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.
Eph 2:4  But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us,
Eph 2:5  Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;)

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« Reply #18 on: August 14, 2013, 02:54:06 pm »

Again, none of this puppet show interests me, but nonetheless it is JUST THAT to entertain the masses so that they'll ultimately surprise them over the long haul...

Every time I read these particular articles, sometimes it makes me wonder how Churchianity will respond to something like this...

http://news.yahoo.com/carl-demaio-running-for-congress-in-california--220037721.html
How a young, gay congressional candidate could shake up the GOP
8/14/13

SAN DIEGO — It’s January 2015, and a newly elected House member from California walks side by side with his male partner to be sworn into office in Washington. The young lawmaker is a supporter of same-sex marriage. He believes the government should keep abortion legal. He considers himself an environmentalist.

He's also a Republican
.

This could be the future for one Carl DeMaio, a former San Diego city councilman and recent mayoral candidate who is expected to challenge freshman Democratic Rep. Scott Peters in the state's 52nd congressional district. DeMaio has announced his plan to challenge Peters, but the unfolding sexual harassment scandal surrounding San Diego Mayor Bob Filner could also draw DeMaio into a special election for the mayor's office if Filner is recalled.

DeMaio, 38, doesn’t fit the mold of a traditional Republican. His election could make him the only openly gay GOP member of Congress. (Just two openly gay Republicans have ever served in the House.) DeMaio's views on same-sex marriage and abortion are also at odds with the party platform.

But DeMaio says he’s not interested in making social issues central to his campaign. While open about his beliefs, his run is focused on government accountability and pocketbook-issue reform instead of relitigating the culture wars.

“We ought to take those divisive issues, particularly the social issues, and set them off to the side,” DeMaio told Yahoo News in an interview. “It’s not appropriate for the government to be making decisions for people in their private lives. Instead, we should demand that we look beyond labels to embrace common sense ideas on financial reform and holding these government programs accountable.”

DeMaio's policy views — economically conservative and socially liberal — place him in a libertarian wing of the Republican Party, one that seems to be growing in popularity among young voters. But he's reluctant to put himself in any category.

“I warmly embrace the libertarian label, but I also want to point out that one of my biggest frustrations in politics is that people want to shove one or two big labels on some people that sums who they are and what they believe and what their record has been. I think that’s limiting,” DeMaio said.

Despite his potential of being a maverick if he makes it to Congress, DeMaio is not a fringe candidate. He has early support from the party establishment — the National Republican Congressional Committee, the official party group responsible for electing Republicans to the House, is backing him full force. In July, California Republican Rep. Kevin McCarthy, the third-ranking House Republican, hosted a fundraiser for him in Washington. The invitation branded DeMaio as a “New Generation Republican.”

Given his background, DeMaio seems like just the type of candidate that the  soul-searching Republican Party is looking for.

“I actually think that we are going to make headway in the Republican Party on these issues in the coming years,” DeMaio told Yahoo News. “It is going to be a totally different thrust for the Republican Party.”

DeMaio was born in Iowa, and his family moved to Southern California when he was a child. DeMaio’s father left the family and his mother died while he was still in high school. Young DeMaio was sent to boarding school at Georgetown Preparatory School near Washington, and he went on to graduate from Georgetown University.

As a young man in the nation’s capital during Newt Gingrich’s Republican Revolution in 1994, DeMaio plugged into the city’s conservative scene, developing his skills as a policy researcher. He took a job with the Congressional Institute, a think tank that hosts conferences for lawmakers on policymaking.

He went on to found his own group, The Performance Institute, which does similar work and emphasizes transparency reforms and efficiency in government. Through the 1990s and early 2000s, DeMaio established himself as a policy wonk, publishing position papers on government reform for various groups, including the libertarian Reason Foundation based in California.

DeMaio won a seat on the San Diego City Council in 2008, where he focused on several city-based reforms, including a successful push to overhaul the costly pension program for city workers by placing new employees into private, 401(k)-style retirement accounts.

He ran a robust campaign for mayor of San Diego in 2012, losing to Democrat Bob Filner by just 3 percentage points despite a surge in Democratic turnout across the state supporting President Barack Obama's re-election.

DeMaio announced his candidacy to challenge Peters in May.

A DeMaio victory would give a boost to Republicans in California, where the party has been steadily losing ground for two decades. There are currently just 15 Republicans among the state's 55-member congressional delegation, the nation's largest.

According to early poll numbers, DeMaio could be a viable challenger. His mayoral campaign provided him with strong name-ID in the district, a crucial leg up for any candidate challenging an incumbent. A Survey USA poll conducted in June, 17 months before next year’s election, showed DeMaio leading Peters in a hypothetical matchup by 11 percentage points.

As with any political campaign, DeMaio has also made enemies. His support of the pension overhaul enraged organized labor interests, and he won few friends within the gay community when he accepted campaign donations from supporters of the movement to ban same-sex marriage in California. Last year, when DeMaio and his partner, Jonathan Hale, walked together in the San Diego LGBT Pride Parade, some in the crowd booed him along the way.

Publicly, national Democrats dismiss DeMaio as a grandstander. But privately, some express concern that he could be a strong challenger to Peters, particularly since there is little daylight between the two candidates on some of the social issues that have tripped up other Republican candidates in previous races around the country. The election will also occur midway through Obama's second term, an election cycle that historically isn't as hospitable to the president's party.

But since DeMaio's former political foe, Filner, is almost sure to face a well-organized recall campaign in the coming weeks, DeMaio is considered a prime candidate to run in a special election to replace him. Filner has conceded behaving inappropriately but is refusing to resign.

DeMaio told Yahoo News that he would “absolutely” sign a petition to recall Filner, but was coy when asked if he would seek the mayor’s office.

“There are benefits and liability in weighing into that question right now,” DeMaio told Yahoo News. “I’m going to continue to focus on how we can rid our city of the cancer that is Bob Filner. Until he departs that office, our city will be held hostage and our people’s business will not get done.”

In San Diego, the accusations against Filner, (which  DeMaio warned about during the campaign against him last year), have dominated the news cycle for weeks. Filner on Tuesday challenged the recall in a written statement, but the campaign is likely to begin as early as this month, forcing DeMaio to make what will surely be a difficult choice.

**Read a bit about this San Diego mayor's scandals - anytime they get a lot of media attention like this, you know there's an agenda behind it.
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« Reply #19 on: August 14, 2013, 03:48:31 pm »

Ya know, the phrase "you can't make this stuff up!" gets used so much, but in this case, it really applies. Check out this guy...

Carl DeMaio

Quote
...DeMaio was born in Dubuque, Iowa to Carl Joseph DeMaio and Diane M. DeMaio (née Elgin). He spent his early childhood in Orange County, California where his family moved in the late 1970s. His mother died in 1990, two weeks after his father abandoned the family. DeMaio was taken in by Jesuit priests and enrolled in boarding school at Georgetown Preparatory School.[2] After completing high school in 1993,[3] He entered Georgetown University and graduated from college early, receiving a degree in International Politics and Business.[4]

While attending college DeMaio worked as a political intern in Washington, D. C., ultimately landing a job with the Congressional Institute.[2] He served as the Institute's Director of Planning.[4] He worked in Washington from 1994 to 1999. After college, he established The Performance Institute,[2] a for-profit think tank that provided training for government officials, followed by the American Strategic Management Institute, which was modeled on The Performance Institute and provided training and education in corporate financial and performance management.[5] He sold both companies to the Thompson Publishing Group in late 2007. [5]...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_DeMaio
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« Reply #20 on: August 14, 2013, 04:08:16 pm »

Good find! Yeah, nothing further from the truth in terms of Jesuits/Vatican infiltrating this country...and we've heard this type of story a number of times as well!
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« Reply #21 on: August 27, 2013, 04:52:36 pm »

http://money.msn.com/investing/why-high-school-kids-are-financially-illiterate
Why high school kids are financially illiterate

A report out this month finds most states doing a poor or mediocre job in imparting key financial skills to students.


If the U.S. education system can't teach Johnny how to read, it's not surprising it can't teach him how to balance his checkbook or calculate compound interest.

A report out this month from the Champlain College Center for Financial Literacy (CFL) in Vermont finds that the vast majority of states are doing a poor or mediocre job of educating high school students in key financial skills. The report card, which awarded each state a letter grade, gave 60% of the states a C or less; 44% of those received D or F grades.

John Pelletier, director of the CFL and author of the 2013 National Report Card on State Efforts to Improve Financial Literacy in High Schools, argues that to make programs successful at the high school level, "financial literacy topics must be taught in a course that students are required to take as a graduation requirement."

The other essential ingredients for success are increased teacher training, funding to ensure that classes are offered to all high school students, and standardized assessments that insure that training is working.

A generational 'money' gap
In the aftermath of the 2008 banking and real estate crises, experts say financial education is critical to helping young adults better handle everything from credit card debt to student loans, and to make more complex choices about investing and mortgages. Since there's no national curriculum standard for teaching financial literacy, questions remain about who should teach the classes and even whether funding should come from public or private sources. As a result, the quality of financial education varies wildly from state to state and from district to district.

A-rated states like Virginia, Utah, Tennessee and Missouri are the only ones in the report that require a one-semester stand-alone class in personal finance as a graduation requirement. Tennessee, Georgia and Idaho (the latter two also received A's) require students to be assessed on their knowledge of financial topics.

Alabama, Arkansas, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Massachusetts, Nebraska, Rhode Island and Washington, on the other hand, all received failing grades because they have few or no requirements for personal-finance education in high school.

A low priority
For some schools, financial literacy is just not a top priority. "If your (students) can't read, or you're struggling with gang problems (in your neighborhoods), financial literacy is fairly low on the list," says Carol Roth, a former investment banker and the author of The Entrepreneur Equation.

So how does financial education fight its way in, when every subject in cash-strapped school districts is competing for its own piece of the dwindling budget pie?

Not easily, according to Todd Harrison, founder and CEO of Minyanville, a New York-based financial education and media website. Harrison's company has developed a financial literacy curriculum that has failed to gain entry into public schools. He blames a "labyrinth of politics in the school systems" that are hesitant to experiment with alternative teaching methods and that undervalue financial education.

"A financial framework is entirely more important then just an elective program," he says. "It should be mandatory."

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« Reply #22 on: September 06, 2013, 04:53:43 pm »

http://www.mainstreet.com/article/career/employment/why-millennials-lack-loyalty-toward-employeers?puc=yahoo&cm_ven=YAHOO
9/6/13
This is Why Millennials Lack Loyalty Toward Employers

NEW YORK (MainStreet) — Each year, Millennials constitute a growing share of the work force, yet employers are finding it much more difficult to retain them.

According to a recent survey conducted by Millenial Branding Inc., 45% of companies surveyed report having a high turnover rate with their millennial workers. In addition, 30% of these companies reported losing 15% or more of their Gen Y workforce each year.

The reason behind this finding can provide a great deal of insight into what young people value the most in a workplace. The same survey cited "a good cultural fit" as one of the main indicators of companies that are able to retain Gen Y employees.
 
It seems that Millennials want more than just a good job. It isn't enough to get a nice paycheck. They need to feel that we are working for an organization that we can identify with.

It's not that money isn't important to them – it's just that they place a higher value on other elements. In a 2010 Pew Research Study, only 31% of Millennials reported being satisfied with their current salary - but there is simply more to it than that.

Millenial Branding Inc. managing partner Dan Scshawbel, who worked on a study with Monster.com earlier this year, found that Millennials care more about skill training and development than older generations (33% for Gen Y vs. 22% for Gen X and 15% for Boomers).

"We also found that they care about advancement opportunities more than older generations and they care less about retirement benefits, healthcare and the location where they work," he said.

Millennials care deeply about how a job affects our lifestyle. While a high salary is a top priority to many Gen Yers, the same survey found that Millennials tend to value lifestyle over salary.

"I want flexibility with my time- [my boss] wants hard work and results", said Maggie Young, a Gen Y professional who is a communications specialist for marketing firm B&B. "By understanding this, I am motivated to get my work time so that I can come and go and leave as I need to. With volunteering, physical activities and a social life, having more time to spend outside of work is important to me."

While these trends highlight key cultural differences between generations, they also create issues for employers. More than 71% of firms surveyed reported that losing millennial workers caused a heightened workload and added stress to current employees.

The other problem is that Gen Y workers are quite expensive to replace. Close to 90% of the firms surveyed reported that the cost of replacing a Millennial employee was anywhere from $15,000 to $25,000. This is mainly because young workers are the most expensive age group to train.

Seeing the importance of retaining Millennial employees, companies have taken swift action. Many firms have reported creating employee retention programs designed to address the needs of younger employees. Important factors such as mentorship and workplace flexibility are now being integrated into company cultures in order to make firms more enticing to younger workers, but there is still more to do.

"Companies need to create a corporate culture that appeals to Millennials, and many have started creating programs that support this important demographic," Schawbel adds.

Such programs that have been created address issues such as "workplace flexibility" (48% of companies reporting), "mentoring programs" (40%) and "internal hiring" (37%). Only 10% of companies cite using "intra-preneurship" and "community service programs" to engage Millennials.
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« Reply #23 on: September 10, 2013, 01:57:01 pm »

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/wastes-most-time-120700150.html
Who Wastes the Most Time at Work?
9/7/13

A year ago my friend Russ Warner, CEO of ContentWatch, collaborated with me on the article Employees Really Do Waste Time At Work.  The interest in that article continues to grow to this day. Today he shared his updated perspective. The verdict: We're even worse off than before.

The distractions are endless. According to Socialnomics and other web sources, volumes of new data and photos are uploaded continually and Web surfers are bombarded with thousands--even millions--of fresh pics, tweets, and articles every day. More than 1.1 billion active Facebook users upload 350M photos daily.  And more than 100 hours of video join the YouTube database every minute.

From Bad to Worse

For good or bad, we now have access to more than two Zettabytes of data worldwide as of 2011 (2 zettabytes = 2 trillion gigabytes). The data deluge has fostered an atmosphere of productivity loss and increased "me time" entitlement. However you look at it, the Internet provides the medium to needlessly occupy all of our time. Each of us has the option to waste or utilize time, but the outcome varies by the habits each of us set.

In business, we do not simply create or gain capital; we achieve it. Time, generously doused with effort, produces capital. When workers become lackadaisical, capital becomes weak. When employees shuffle back to their desks after an extended water-cooler conversation and toggle between a spreadsheet and their Facebook page (60 percent of users check Facebook daily), “like” a new pic on Instagram and then check their status with the 218 million professionals and friends on LinkedIn, they are wasting your time.

The simple truth: People waste time at work

Whether it's web surfing, engaging in personal phone calls, searching for new job opportunities, gossiping by the water cooler, shopping online, exploring social networks or checking personal email, a great deal of working time slips away. Of all workplace distractions, the Internet is the greatest productivity drain.

Sixty four percent of employees visit non-work related websites each day. In this category, the amount of time wasted per week on non-work related websites is as follows: 

Time Wasted                  Pct of Employees
1-2 hours                               29%
2-5 hours                               21%
6-10 hours                             8%
10+ hours                               3%

Contributing to these percentages are social media networks. The winners for the time-loss warp are Tumblr (57%), Facebook (52%), Twitter (17%), Instagram (11%) and SnapChat (4%).

How much is too much?

Imagine an employee who works 2,080 hours per year (260 days). If she is in top the bracket of time wasters, she wastes 520 hours per year. That's 25% of her total hours at work spent on unproductive activities. Clearly this costs your company capital.

In addition to the conscious wasting of time, companies also squander salary and benefits on distractions such as watching and following national sports. Workplace contests such as March Madness can be detrimental to time management and focus. Some 86% of employees will spend at least some time at work following March Madness this year.

While employees congregate around TV screens, they're not answering phones or supporting clients on emails. March Madness alone, for example, costs U.S. companies $175 million in wasted time in just the first two days.

Why do employees waste so much time?

When you hire employees, you expect them to be efficient and do the job right. The employees who seek you out most generally ramped up their resumes, interviewed, and wanted their job. So why, once they get the job, do they slip into habits of time wasting and self-entitlement?

According to recent data from Salary.com, employees give the following responses:

·      34% of employees say they are not challenged
·      34% say they work long hours
·      32% say there’s no incentive to work harder
·      30% are unsatisfied with work
·      23% are just plain bored
·      18% say it’s due to low wages

As dismal as these reasons may be, all of them contribute to a lack of productivity. With no drive to work hard, employees simply plod through their work unfocused and unmotivated and get little done each day. Menial tasks become accepted as a way to fill time.

Wasted by ****

Another distraction that is a huge issue from the standpoint of workplace liability is pornography viewing at work. Nielsen has found that 25 percent of working adults admit to looking at pornography on a computer at work. And 70 percent of all online pornography access occurs between 9 AM and 5 PM.

It's clear that **** is a common occurrence at work. This not only wastes time but also creates a hazard in your work place environment as it can lead to complaints and trouble among co-workers, sexual harassment cases, and liability for employers who haven’t taken sufficient steps to keep the unwanted content from view (let alone the network bandwidth and malware issues involved).

Who wastes the most time?

We  can classify employees into three general categories: Baby Boomers, Generation X, and Generation Y (Millennials). Each category tends statistically towards a set of predominant habits and traits. Knowing these possible traits can help you manage the strengths and weaknesses of each group as it pertains to time misspent in the workplace.

•Millennials (Gen Y) - born between the years of 1982 - 2004. They had access to the Internet and cell phones for communication.
•Generation X - born between the years of 1965 -1981; they had a mix of Internet/cell phones in their later years.
•Baby Boomers - born between the years 1946 - 1964. They had no Internet/cell phones even in college. They are immigrants to a technology-based society.

And so the characteristics begin. Of Millennials, 53 percent say they would give up their sense of smell rather than lose a device connection. The desperate need to be "connected" overrides the desire for their olfactory receptors to function. One third of them would rather have a flexible work environment and access to social media than a bigger paycheck.  Perhaps money really isn't the best motivator after all. The motivating factor here is flexibility in device usage. On average, these technology-obsessed workers use their devices 7.5 hours per day.

Each category of workers has its strengths and weaknesses; however, the least effective workers where wasted time is concerned are Millennials. According to a study, Millennials waste more than twice as much time as Boomers. Could this be due to the early-aged exposure to technology? Does the tech-savvy society we live in affect the future employees of America and their productivity levels?

Here is the shocking news. Your company roster most likely includes all of these employee categories, but the break down is this: Boomers waste the least amount of time: about 41 minutes per day. Next are Gen X'ers who waste 1.6 hours per day. Are you ready for the winning number? Millennials waste about 2 hours per day—an entire 40 hours a month!

Millennial Waste

Why do Millennials waste so much time? On the whole, studies show, they blend work and life into an immutable whole. They have developed an entitlement to "me" time at work. On the plus side, they are highly team-oriented, which naturally sets the stage for more conversation with co-workersbut yet again, also leads to the trend and the tendency to waste workplace time. The Salary.com study reveals that the number one cause for distraction among Millennials is (not surprisingly) the Internet.

How To Make Employees More Productive

The data is dismal, but Warner has offered up several strategies managers can use to help increase distracted workers' ability to succeed. In the case of Millennials, he suggests, this is a group that clearly need more freedom in the workplace than their established counterparts in order to accomplish their goals. They will naturally need to collaborate through the use of technology. If you allow them to collaborate via the mediums they are most familiar with (including social media), they will complete projects faster and the process will run more smoothly.

However, don't allow Millennials to run amok, Warner says. If they are becoming overly distracted by social media, give them additional structure during the workday. Provide guidelines for when they're allowed to access their favorite social media sites, such as potentially only once every two hours. Or allow them two paid fifteen-minute breaks a day where they're allowed to go online to do whatever they want (although workplace HR and liability rules still apply).

If your Millennial workers are wasting too much time chatting with co-workers, tell them it's fine to chat for a few minutes, Warner suggests, but to advise them not to carry these conversations on at length. Let these employees see you're willing to be flexible where possible, and they'll be more likely to want to please you by working hard. Happy employees work more efficiently, and waste less time in social media and other pursuits. When the company has a policy that makes it okay to check Facebook or Instagram periodically, they are more likely to get their work done during the rest of their time.

Three Ideas for Higher Productivity

1. First, know your employees. Once you know how your employees operate, you know how to accommodate their needs. Ask them explicitly.  Even take surveys, where needed. Another idea is to establish a weekly lunch-on-the-company routine. (Our agency does this. We call it "Company Lunch". Plan parties for the weekend.

2. Second, establish rules and guidelines that motivate. Let employees contribute to the guidelines and rules. Co-creativity is important. "People need people, people need technology and people need spaces that bring those two together in effective ways that help build bonds and trust. Innovation cannot exist without these" says Business News Daily. Ditch the typical cubicle. "The hunt is on to create spaces that allow the entrepreneur to express their unique culture, that encourages spontaneous interaction, that screams that fun is a meaningful part of the creative process, and encourages personal expression making people feel at home."

A few examples of guidelines that motivate:
•Consider holding shorter meetings. Or establish a "no-meeting-day" policy: Pick a day to be meeting-free and see how employees revel in the day of no dragged-out meetings.

•Consider a more flexible dress code. Should your employees be in formal business attire if they are doing heavy lifting or never seeing clients? Pick days that can be deemed "casual." But be warned, clothing should never be offensive, frayed, or dirty in the workplace.
•Provide equipment to use during free time (such as exercise equipment, foosball, or ping pong). By providing recreational equipment, you encourage physical activity, allow your workers to unwind during stressful times and possibly increase their state of health.
•Train team in skills of time literacy and how to manage daily interruptions.

•Stay up-to-date on new management techniques.
•Consider Flex Scheduling or additional options for allowing employees to work from home, where possible, to avoid waste.

Consider these ideas as well:

-Provide flexible working hours to permit those who seek for physical activity before work, at lunch or after work.
-Offer facilities for those who wish to exercise -- shower, locker room, or an on-site exercise equipment,
-Support a local recreation league or sports team (community leagues).
-Offer discounts or subsidies on memberships at local gyms, rec centers, or health clubs.
-Offer fitness opportunities at work, such as group classes or personal training.

3. Third, measure and reward results, not time on the clock. Call employees personally to thank them and congratulate them on a job well done.

Not all methods will fit your company, your employees, or your personal style. But smart businesses should take immediate action to improve their employees’ productivity.  Whatever the stage of your company, set a culture in place right away to help employees understand that in your workplace, the smart use of time means everything to your company's success.
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« Reply #24 on: September 10, 2013, 01:59:40 pm »

It's come to a point in society where we have to bend backwards and forwards, and even tip-toe around everyone. You're seeing this in these modern-day church buildings where they're tickling their ears instead of preaching truth.

James 1:2  My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations;
Jas 1:3  Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience.
Jas 1:4  But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.

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« Reply #25 on: September 10, 2013, 04:40:29 pm »

Quote
It's come to a point in society where we have to bend backwards and forwards, and even tip-toe around everyone.

Yeah, I see that as following the verse..."...agree with thine adversary quickly...". Jesus already told us that He will cause divisions. But if we look at how Jesus acted in the flesh, we see at times He avoided people. Like it says in Ecclesiastes, there is a time for everything, including a time to refrain, if for no other reason we are not to cast our pearls before swine.
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« Reply #26 on: September 17, 2013, 01:55:41 pm »

http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/daily-ticker/millennials-changing-rules-investing-160938379.html
Millennials Are Changing the Rules of Investing
By Justin Maiman | Daily Ticker – 2 hours 26 minutes ago

The financial crisis changed the world in many ways but here's one you probably didn't even think of: it raised the profile and influence of Millennials in the financial services market.

Elliot Weissbluth, CEO of HighTower Advisors and a LinkedIn (LNKD) Influencer, weighed in this week with a commentary tied to the 5-year anniversary of the collapse of Lehman. He says it's time for Wall Street to "embrace the hyper-connected, fully-integrated, socially-networked, crowd-sourced, Millennial generation." (This is the generation born between 1985-2000.)

Here's why Weissbluth thinks everything is on the verge of a seismic change: "These investors are not waiting for the big financial firms to undergo a great moral awakening. They are not sitting on their hands hoping the government will pass some glorious reform making the financial system safer," says Weissbluth. "Instead, Millennials are looking for the right people with whom to do business. Instead of dutifully accepting their parents’ choices, they’re consulting their “friends” first – often anonymously and in great numbers."

This matters because there is data out there that shows Millennials are actually saving more money, and starting earlier, than previous generations. That of course means they'll have more money to invest. But where, and with who, will they invest?

"Approximately 90% of the millennial generations are...likely to fire their parents' financial advisor," says Weissbluth.

Yikes.

If there is indeed a real lack of trust among this generation for the finance industry as a whole, that also means there is a real business opportunity ahead.

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Matthew 10:21  And the brother shall deliver up the brother to death, and the father the child: and the children shall rise up against their parents, and cause them to be put to death.

Matthew 15:4  For God commanded, saying, Honour thy father and mother: and, He that curseth father or mother, let him die the death.
Mat 15:5  But ye say, Whosoever shall say to his father or his mother, It is a gift, by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me;
Mat 15:6  And honour not his father or his mother, he shall be free. Thus have ye made the commandment of God of none effect by your tradition
.


Ephesians 6:1  Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right.
Eph 6:2  Honour thy father and mother; (which is the first commandment with promise;)
Eph 6:3  That it may be well with thee, and thou mayest live long on the earth.

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Psalm 51:17
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« Reply #27 on: September 27, 2013, 12:02:59 pm »

Again, I'm not trying to belittle young people(I myself am Generation X), but nonetheless a trend that has come about since I went to college in the 1990's is the over-emphasis of putting young people in high leadership positions. And this hasn't been good b/c as this has been on the rise, slowly but surely the elderly are being forced out. Now more churches are being runned by Gen X/Millennial pastors.

1Tim_5:17  Let the elders that rule well be counted worthy of double honour, especially they who labour in the word and doctrine.

Titus_1:5  For this cause left I thee in Crete, that thou shouldest set in order the things that are wanting, and ordain elders in every city, as I had appointed thee:

Hebrews 11:1  Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
Hebrews_11:2  For by it the elders obtained a good report.



http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/power-players-abc-news/capitol-hill-40-under-40-youth-invasion-change-111640881.html?vp=1
9/27/13
Capitol Hill’s 40 under 40: Will youth invasion change Washington?

Top Line

Can youth and relative inexperience be virtues? Illinois Republican Aaron Schock and Hawaii Democrat Tulsi Gabbard are making the case that they can be – at least when it comes to getting things done on Capitol Hill.

The two members of Congress, both in their thirties, are recruiting Congress’ 40 members under the age of 40 to join their newly launched “Congressional Future Caucus.”

“It’s bringing together the freshest faces in Washington, DC and the Congress,” Schock told “Top Line” of the new caucus in a joint interview with Gabbard on the steps of the Capitol.

When most of America looks at Washington, DC, they look at a much older, much grayer Congress, and we’re excited that there are now 40 members under the age of 40 and we can hopefully get some things done,” Schock said.

Gabbard says she’s observed that that younger, newer members of Congress tend to have a different mindset than some of their older colleagues who’ve been in Congress for a longer period of time.

“What we’re seeing generationally, that is now being reflected in Congress, because we have more members who are younger, is an impatience, an unwillingness to just wait around and expect things will change,” she said.

And with this new caucus, Gabbard hopes, those members will have a forum to break through the gridlock that’s been characteristic of Washington in recent years.

“Unfortunately, what happens too often is you start at opposite ends of the spectrum and then you start lobbing bombs at each other, expecting that’s going to end up with something constructive, and that’s where we need to change,” Gabbard said.

Though the new caucus is geared toward younger members of Congress, Schock qualifies that there isn’t an age limit for membership.

“It’s less about age and more about their mentality,” Schock said. “We’re talking about, hey, what do we need to do strategically about education, about infrastructure, with energy, for the next 10, 20, 30 years. And in my view if you’re a 78 or an 88 year old and you think about the next 30 years, we want you as part of this discussion.”

To hear more about the “Congressional Future Caucus,” and how Schock and Gabbard envision the caucus will bring compromise to Washington, check out this episode of “Top Line.”

ABC’s Freda Kahen-Kashi, Alexandra Dukakis, Kyle Blaine, Chris Carlson, and Derek Johnston contributed to this episode.
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« Reply #28 on: September 30, 2013, 02:04:17 pm »

Sometimes I wonder what they do with all this "fundraising" money they get. It's ALOT of money, no one can deny that! Also, Emergent is a New Age buzzword(ie-the modern-day Emergent Church lead by Rick Warren and Bill Hybels).

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2013/09/30/ben-sasse-nebraska-obamacare
9/30/13
Emergent Anti-Obamacare Senate Candidate Breaks Fundraising Record in Nebraska

A novice Republican running in a rural state has shattered fundraising records campaigning as the "anti-Obamacare candidate." In his first race for public office, Ben Sasse has raised nearly $750,000 in just eight weeks of the first quarter of his nascent candidacy, according to records being filed with the Federal Election Commission.

The massive haul highlights how lucrative campaigning against Obamacare can be for Republicans. It also underscores how deeply motivated conservative voters are to see that the sprawling healthcare law be killed.

A college president in his hometown of Fremont, Nebraska, Sasse is a newcomer to politics, but he has spent much of the past decade working on healthcare issues. As a top advisor to President Bush's Health Secretary, Sasse worked to cut red tape and pushed market-based solutions over government mandates. Sasse also spent several years traveling the country giving speeches and advising companies about the dangers of Obamacare and how it will hike costs, constrict innovation, and ultimately provide terrible health care.

"I am the anti-Obamacare candidate," Sasse said cheerfully. "Not only have I read the 2,300-page bill, I have actually spent years studying it and I understand just how devastating this will be to American businesses, families and taxpayers."

It was Sasse's health care expertise and his outspoken opposition to Obamacare that inspired former Nebraska GOP chairman Mark Fahleson to draft Sasse to run for the open seat left by Sen. Mike Johann's retirement.

"2014 and probably 2016 will be about one thing more than anything else," Fahleson said. "It will be about Obamacare and the false promises and reckless entitlement spending that are set to destroy this country. And I don't know anybody who knows more about it and is more honest about the problems of Obamacare than Ben."

Sasse's campaign comes just as the crusade against Obamacare has hit a fevered pitch in Washington.

"Ted Cruz has finally shown the Republican establishment in Washington just how fed up voters are with the federal government and the notion that bureaucrats know what is best for patients," said one political consultant who advised the Cruz campaign. "That's why a guy knowledgeable about healthcare like Ben Sasse being in the Senate would be the most destructive thing to ever hit Obamacare."

Sasse's cash haul of nearly $750,000 from individual donors in his first quarter breaks Nebraska's previous record of $526,000 from individual donors, set in 2007 by Johanns while he was sitting U.S. Secretary of Agriculture.

Shane Osborn, former state treasurer who has been running for the senate seat for six months, raised just $234,000 in his first quarter, according to FEC records.

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Sasse
Benjamin (Ben) E. Sasse (born in 1972 in Fremont, Nebraska) is President of Midland University in Fremont. He was announced as the 15th president of the school in October 2009, at the age of 37, and was installed as President on December 10, 2010.[1]
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« Reply #29 on: September 30, 2013, 07:05:43 pm »

Quote
As a top advisor to President Bush's Health Secretary, Sasse worked to cut red tape and pushed market-based solutions over government mandates.

There you go. Just another of their "Henry Ford Color Options".
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