2,422 videos 1,389,747,653 views US Joined Aug 30, 2018
Charlie Kirk is the Founder and President of Turning Point USA, the largest and fastest growing conservative youth activist organization in the country with over 250,000 student members, over 150 full-time staff, and a presence on over 2,000 high school and college campuses nationwide. Charlie is also the Chairman of Students for Trump, which aims to activate one million new college voters on campuses in battleground states in the lead up to the 2020 presidential election. His social media reaches over 100 million people per month and according to Axios, he is one of the "top 10 most engaged" Twitter handles in the world. He is also the host of “The Charlie Kirk Show,” which regularly ranks among the top news shows on Apple podcast charts.
Charlie Kirk on Why 4 Million Gen Zers Are Jobless: Parents Would Rather Their Kids Be Unemployed Than Plumbers
Charlie Kirk examines a Fortune magazine report revealing that one in five Gen Z adults are neither employed, educated, nor in training. The issue, Kirk argues, isn't just worthless college degrees, it's the toxic social pressure among upper-middle-class parents who would rather see their children unemployed and directionless than working as plumbers or electricians. Drawing on his book The College Scam, Kirk exposes how parental insecurity and status anxiety have driven an entire generation into debt, despair, and a directionless existence while skilled trades that offer abundant, satisfying lives remain stigmatized.
Charlie Kirk opens by discussing a Fortune magazine article that validated his warnings about the college system. The article reports that over 4 million Gen Zers are jobless, with experts blaming colleges for worthless degrees and a system of broken promises. According to the report, one in every five adult members of Gen Z are neither employed, educated, nor training—a group referred to as NEETs (Neither Employed nor in Education or Technical Training).
Kirk reflects on writing The College Scam a couple of summers ago, calling it one of the books he's most proud of. The book served as a clear indictment of what he calls the "college cabal" and didn't win him many friends. He recalls contentious debates with wealthy individuals in Jackson Hole and Palm Beach, where older boomer Americans insisted that college is wonderful, everyone should attend, and the only issue is cost. Kirk disagreed then and stands by his position now: the four-year degree system represents one of the greatest scams in America.
A Generation Living Without Direction
Kirk examines why so many Gen Z young adults are doing nothing with their lives. They're not in the job market, not attending school, and not pursuing training. Instead, they live with their parents, draw welfare, play video games, and simply exist. Kirk describes this as a miserable existence—living without direction and just waiting for death.
The root cause, according to Kirk, lies in decades of driving young people to take out debt for useless degrees in irrelevant fields. The education system shut down schools during COVID, gutted standards, and created what Kirk calls "an elaborate racial spoil system." He maintains his long-held position that 90% of kids who go to college should not go to college.
Adding to the problem, Kirk notes that almost none of these students are being prepared for the coming wave of job displacement due to artificial intelligence. Young people are going hundreds of thousands of dollars into student loan debt without considering what they're actually studying for, whether employers want to hire them, or whether they'll even use their degrees in the workforce.
The Real Problem: Upper-Middle-Class Status Anxiety
Kirk highlights what he considers the core issue: parental insecurity and social pressure. Quoting political commentator, journalist, and author Peter Hitchens from the Fortune article, Kirk emphasizes that in many cases, young people have been sent off to universities for worthless degrees which have produced nothing at all. Hitchens argues they would be much better off if they apprenticed to become plumbers or electricians, where they could look forward to a much more abundant and satisfying life.
But Kirk identifies the obstacle: most parents would be ashamed to tell their neighbors that their child has become a plumber. He paints a vivid picture of suburban moms who would be horrified to have to tell their social circle that Johnny is a plumber. Instead, it's much easier to say Johnny is "trying to find himself" or doing "his crypto thing" or dealing with "mental health problems."
According to Kirk, there are really only five acceptable careers for upper-middle-class white society:
Doctor
Lawyer
Computer engineer
Banker
Teacher
Anything outside these professions, particularly work with one's hands, is viewed as a failure of parenting. Saying "my son is an electrician" leads to judgmental responses about having to work with his hands.
Testing the Theory in Elite Circles
Kirk recounts testing his theory while giving a speech in Aspen. He asked the audience how many would be happy if their son became an electrician. They laughed audibly. Kirk didn't back down, telling them directly: "You guys are the problem." He has no problem standing up to elites and made his point clear—these parents would rather have their children be wanderers moving from Portland to Seattle, "finding themselves," working for some micro brewery, or trading crypto than have to tell their friends their child is an electrician.
The reason, Kirk argues, is that skilled trades are unseemly for upper-middle-class white society. The insecurity of parents has driven an entire generation to despair and a directionless existence, all to maintain social status and avoid the embarrassment of admitting their children work in skilled trades.
