Land of Immigrants

   Throughout the evolution of history and ever since there was a knowledge of the existence of this land, the United States of America has been the new land for many civilizations and ethnic groups. The earliest immigrants were of course, the Indians, people who came into this land looking for food, warmth, shelter, first people to take this territory as their homeland, later on the British came in, since the first ship, the Mayflower, to the last they were all looking for the same, a new place to settle in, later on the U.S. welcomed a new ethnic group the Africans, people with a darker color, who were forced to come into this land and settle in for good, as the country emerged and grew Europeans started to come in as well, which was increased during and after the World Wars, now at days our largest immigrant groups are the Hispanics or Latinos which are not only the largest but also the youngest .  One- in-five schoolchildren is Hispanic. One-in-four newborns is Hispanic. Never before in this country’s history has a minority ethnic group made up so large a share of the youngest Americans.

Immigration is the movement of people into a country or region, to which they are not native, in order to settle there

So if immigration has always existed, why do we make such a big deal out of it, if after all there is not a single  pure American or Canadian, or Mexican or Puerto Rican or any other country that’s part of the Americas.

Previously we´ve talked about the value of a college education, in order to succeed and how there is a large percentage of Americans that wish to obtain one and how this helps our country in so many different ways like people gaining more money and having better chances,  we have also talked about how could pregnancy affect this as very few people are able to raise a child and get a degree either high school or college, being education so important teens that become parents as they have less access to education they have less access to good jobs and this person that has 3 kids and a minimum wage and has to maintain all of his family is obviously poor, that is what happens to teen parents and sadly of the main

We could observe in our chart that taking in account the main ethnic groups young Latinos are the ones suffering the most, they have higher rates of poverty high school dropouts and pregnancy all of which is very terrifying not only for this young ethnic group but for the entire country.

But this could even get worse being a Hispanic someone that does not know the language, the culture the territory and the country itself, they are not able to get descent jobs that will help them strive through life, and also as many of them come here thanks to dangerous gangs and other things , so people that are young and that have no notion of how things are managed in the U.S.  eventually fall into poverty and this  generation starts having less chances to a better life as the cycle repeats itself.

, they are also more likely to get involved in gangs and have a short life damaging others and having a role on illegal economical activities.

But immigrants do not only have negative impacts on the economy they also have bring up many aspects and improves our economy in many ways. Immigrants specially when they are legal, have a great role in economy, facing up the facts, legal immigrants are generally entrepreneurs people who move out of their country to start a new business in a different place where they think they would have better opportunities . They usually come in with fresh and different ideas and methods, things that would help the country and will open up the minds of many Americans.

There are also large groups of Latinos that think of America as an opportunity to expand their knowledge and increase their education levels, that had a hard time in order to get there and will try hard in order to bring out the best of them and give it out because they have the tools and a clear purpose in life, having a better quality of life. Checking up this could be supported by the facts that

Nearly all Latino youths (89%) and older adults (88%) agree with the statement that a college degree is important for getting ahead in life.

§  Even more so than other youths, young Latinos have high aspirations for career success. Some 89% say it is very important in their lives, compared with 80% of the full population of 18- to 25-year-olds who say the same.

• Latinos believe in the rewards of hard work. More than eight-in-ten—including 80% of Latino youths and 86% of Latinos ages 26 and older—say that most people can get ahead in life if they work hard.

After all that information, we could say that the success that an immigrant might have in this specific case a Hispanic in the U.S. depends on what  their goals are their educations and their thouhts , thats why they could strongly damage  the economy as well as they could be an excellent boost to it.

Learning about economics

All businesses require productive resources to produce goods and services. Economists classify those resources in 4 main groups:

Land: Includes not only the property, but also natural resources that are used in the production process. Suchs as water and the location of the business.

Labor: All physical and mental skills of workers that are available to produce goods and services, also called human capital.

Capital: Includes goods that aid in producing goods and services, Such as tools, and machinery.

Entrepreneurship: Is the ability of taking risks in order to start new businesses to introduce new products and to improve the management techniques and processes. Knowledge is an example of this.

Does the economy affect teenage substance use?

This research examines how teenage drug and alcohol use responds to changes in the economy. In contrast to the recent literature confirming pro-cyclical alcohol use among adults, this research offers strong evidence that a weaker economy leads to greater teenage marijuana and hard-drug use and some evidence that a weaker economy also leads to higher teenage alcohol use. The findings are based on logistic models with state and year fixed effects, using teenagers from the NLSY-1997. The evidence also indicates that teenagers are more likely to sell drugs in weaker economies. This suggests one mechanism for counter-cyclical drug use - that access to illicit drugs is easier when the economy is weaker. These results also suggest that the strengthening economy in the 1990s mitigated what would otherwise have been much larger increases in teenage drug use.

High Teen Unemployment Could Hurt Future Job Growth

Teenagers without jobs may be missing out on job skills, future wages.

The youngster who takes movie tickets, scans groceries, or walks neighborhood dogs is doing much more than earning extra cash. She is investing in her future.

Yet nearly one in four Americans age 16 to 19 were unemployed in February, according to the latest numbers from the Labor Department. Even as the overall jobless rate held firm at 8.3 percent, the teen rate climbed from 23.2 to 23.8 percent. That number has far to fall before it is in healthy territory. In the mid-2000s, the rate hovered between 14 and 18 percent. For much of the late 1990s and early 2000s, it held at or below 15 percent

"It's a huge problem," says Heidi Shierholz, a labor market economist at the Economic Policy Institute, a liberal Washington-based think tank. The teen jobless rate is in part a function of the larger national jobs crisis, she says. "It shoots up higher during recessions...it pretty much tracks the overall unemployment rate at a much higher level."

The problem has proven persistent, even since the Great Recession ended. The national teen unemployment rate has been above 20 percent since mid-2008. And it is disproportionately affecting certain minorities. The February unemployment rate for Hispanics age 16 to 19 was 27.5 percent, and for blacks it was more than one-third, at 34.7 percent.

Beyond the effect on a teenager's wallet, the high unemployment rate among teens foreshadows economic problems for these youth as they reach adulthood.

"Many of those first-time jobs, even before a career begins, are very formative from some very basic standpoints," says Paul Conway, president of Generation Opportunity, a conservative organization aimed at young Americans. "They teach the basics of how to operate in a workplace—simple things like arriving on time, working on a team, feeling as though you are being compensated for work that you do."

The effects of youth employment go beyond responsibility and how to behave in a professional work environment. Research suggests that, if work doesn't cut into a teen's education, it can boost future earnings. He points to a 1995 National Bureau of Economic Research working paper that shows that high school seniors employed 20 hours per week were, 6 to 9 years later, expected to earn approximately 11 percent more annually than their counterparts who did not work.

While a 1995 Labor Department study on teen employment, found only a short-lived wage boost, the study's author also suggested that the experience could boost job-seeking skills "by teaching [young workers] how to locate good employment opportunities and communicate effectively with potential employers."

This much is clear: the impacts of high teen unemployment could last decades. What is unclear is what to do about it.

One way to ensure work for America's young people is to keep the minimum wage low, says Michael Saltsman, a research fellow at the Employment Policies Institute, a conservative think tank that often advocates against raising the minimum wage

"If you're a young person that doesn't have a lot of experience, the employer you work for might be a restaurant [or] retail store," he says. "When their labor costs go up they have two choices: pass prices on to customers or figure out how to cut costs." During an economic downturn, he adds, employers are particularly reluctant to increase prices.

How to speak with your kid about economy, we teens should know too

Send a truthful message to your teen about your family's money situation. Talk to your teen about how things are changing in your home because of the recession. Then, talk to him about how things will stay the same. For instance, you may not be able to afford an expensive family vacation, but you will still find time to have fun together as a family.

·        1.Explain to your teen that money needs to be earned. If your teen is interested in earning some money, talk to him about getting a job or finding some babysitting work.

·        2.Include your teens in any decisions you will need to make about money in your home. Make a family saving plan and write out everyone's ideas on how to save money around the house. Decide as a family which ideas you will use.

·        3.Money problems in your home can cause your teen stress, just like you. Monitor your teen's stress levels and continue to talk to him about tough issues. This can help prevent your teen from turning to drugs and alcohol to handle their stress.

·        4.Don't try and say everything you need to in one sitting, spread it out over time. Use teachable moments to talk to your teen about money .

Teen pregnancy affecting economy

The negative economic effect that teen pregnancy has on young mothers also impacts the nation’s economy as a whole, according to a report from the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy.

34% of young teen mothers earn neither a college degree nor a high school diploma, and less than 2% of teen mothers earn a degree by the time they turn 30. Because teenage pregnancy deters increased education, it leads to significant amount of lost earnings, which negatively effect the economy as a whole, the study points out:

Nearly one-third of teen girls who have dropped out of high school cite early pregnancy or parenthood as a key reason. According to the Alliance for Excellent Education, it is estimated that over the course of his or her lifetime, a single high school dropout costs the nation approximately $260,000 in lost earnings, taxes, and productivity. Put another way, if students who dropped out of the Class of 2011 had graduated from high school, the nation’s economy would likely benefit from nearly $154 billion in additional income over the course of their lifetimes.

The country’s lost earnings from an increased number of high school and college drop-outs are compounded by the estimated billions of dollars that teenage pregnancies cost taxpayers each year, mainly due to increased public sector health care costs.

Despite the good news that the U.S.’s nationwide teen pregnancy rate is dropping, the rates of teenage motherhood remain highest in states that promote abstinence-only policies. Ultimately, providing young women with insufficient and misleading information about their reproductive health has a dramatically negative economic impact on the nation’s teenage mothers and on the nation as a whole.

How can teenagers influence or be influenced by economy?

An article  that has been previously read as reference, shows the relationship of teenagers  in the different areas of this financial city in which all the social classes are found.

Students in the  private schools of the Upper East, have usually very large fortunes, trust funds, stocks, actions and an endless number of bank accounts, but how do teenagers deal with money in this environment? Do they carry thousands and thousands of dollars with them? The answer is no, believe it or not they do not have pools made of money, in the Upper East Side teens carry credit cards as it is considered that it will give them a sense of responsibility and prevent them from buying drugs or doing any type of illegal activity.

Moving into The Bronx, people use their youth and knowledge on teenage activities to get cash, as this is an environment in which teenagers have a very limited  amount of money in their homes. One of the most famous activities done to get a profit in this area is selling cigars, its actually quite easy, they buy a box of cigars on 5 dollars and sell it for 6 dollars getting a 20% profit on each box.

Another very known way to gain cash on this area are the famous ¨party profiteers¨ people that gain money by promoting parties .One of the interviewed states that he gets from 1.000 to 2.000 dollars in cash on every party.

The middle class, usually takes allowances and part time jobs in order to have money.

But the truth is, after observing the way this 3 social groups behave, we know that although they have a different relationship with economy because of their different conditions, they all have different activities and smart ways to obtain  and manage it.

Why is it really necessary to have a basic knowledge in economy?

Please think about what your dream really is, what do you wish to do after graduating from high school , have you thought of your options?

Now taking statistics 65 % of the high school graduates in 2009 decided that they would continue to get a higher education, but only 25% was able to get into a state or a private college.

Seeing now that the majority of graduates wish to go to college after finishing their high school studies, we can understand that these implies a series of expenses that at least a big majority of people in the world is not able to afford as only around 1% of the world has received or is on the process of receiving a college education.

Colleges all over the United States are expensive, an average public college education is 18.000 dollars if its in state and around 30.000 dollars out state. An average private college is around 40 thousand dollars, whilst affording an Ivy League Education could cost around 65.000 to 80.000 dollars for tuition itself.

Seen that we now know that most of the families in America and in the world do not have the sufficient amount of money to afford sending their kids to college, but, we do know that there are tricks, ways to balance a little bit to help yourself accomplish your dreams after all administration is the smart management of resources in order to accomplish our goals and wishes, so let’s work and learn how we could start getting involved in our college education payments, and in how we could save and obtain money, in order to assure a better future.

Economics

Over the last years, being an adolescent has implied having as many liberties as responsibilities. The current world forces us to understand and have basic knowledge about economy even when we are underage and still depend on our parents support. This blog has been meant to help you with the struggle of understanding and applying economy to a daily basis in order to help ourselves to accomplish our goal.
Going through statistics 1 in 6 teens really understands economy itself and its able to explain is basic concepts. People overestimate economics, and take it as something extremely complicated to learn about, but the truth is that starting out on the basics, without any predetermination would actually help and so now we will give out our basic concepts  :
Economics: It’s the science that studies the production, distribution, and consumption, of goods and services.
Consumption: The total spending on goods during a given period of time.
Production: The making of goods available for use.
Revenue: Payments received by businesses from selling goods and services.
Saving: Occurs when individuals, businesses, and the economy as a whole do not consume all of current income (or output).