Number of Adults Living with Parents Exploding

In Huffington Post, the number of adults living with their parents in the United States has exploded. It's a difficult world for college graduates to start their careers. Inreasing cost of living, low entry-level salaries, growing scarcity of full-time jobs (with benefits), and high student loan debt are common barriers. For many new social workers and information professionals, these are very important things to consider once we graduate with our master's degrees.

Empty nest parents, be warned: the number of adults aged 25 to 34 who are living with their parents has exploded, according to this rather shocking chart put together by economist Tom Lawler and posted on Calculated Risk.

Earlier this year, a study published in the journal Transitions to Adulthood titled "What's Going on with Young People Today? The Long and Twisting Path to Adulthood" concluded that the economic downturn has caused an entire generation to delay adulthood.As ScienceDaily summarized the study: "In 1969, only about 10 percent of men in their early thirties had wages that were below poverty level. By 2004, the share had more than doubled. Overall, the share of young adults in 2005 living in poverty was higher than the national average."

I feel for these college graduates. When I graduated from college, I moved in with my parents because my weekly earnings at my previous job were not enough for me to live on my own. I did not move out until I began graduate school in a different city. This was several years ago, but I imagine the situation is much worse now.

Broken American Justice System

The Huffington Post has an excellent article on the American justice system and plight of ordinary people. The system is so broken that most Americans have no access to civil justice. The United States also ranked among the bottom for developed countries.

Why haven't more Americans successfully sued the banks that lured them into fraudulent mortgages, then foreclosed on them without the required paperwork?

It could be because the civil justice system in this country is essentially inaccessible to many Americans -- and when it does get accessed, is tilted toward the wealthy and moneyed interests.

That's certainly consistent with the finding of a world-wide survey unveiled Thursday morning that ranks the United States lowest among 11 developed nations when it comes to providing access to justice to its citizens -- and lower than some third-world nations in some categories.

How did the United States deteriorate to such a level that it cannot acknowledge fundamental rights among its citizens? This is also surprising news considering that American society is prone to litigation and lawsuits. It's time for Americans to wake up and demand greater access to legal opportunities so that they can defend themselves adequately in court.

Ruby Bridges: The Fight for Educational Equality Continues

Nearly fifty years ago, Ruby Bridges made history by becoming the first African American student to desegregate an all-white public school in the South, chiefly New Orleans. She was escorted by four federal marshalls, as depicted in Norman Rockwell's famous portrait, "The Problem We All Live With." The landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision, Brown v. Board of Education (1954), which found that "separate but equal" school facilities were unequal and unconstitutional, mandated the racial desegregation of public schools across the country. Today, with educational inequality across race and class still looming, Ruby Bridges wants to continue the fight for educational inequality:

The school that Bridges desegregated so many years ago has since fallen into disrepair, but she wants to reopen it with a focus on teaching social justice and history, and to open a civil rights museum next door. In a city where many of the schools once again have racially homogeneous student bodies, she wants to put a special emphasis on diversity.