American youth bask in the feel-good economic vitality that is the hope-and-change economy

He's sooo smart. And he's hissstoric.

• The Department of Labor reports that young Americans -- those aged 16 to 24 -- have an unemployment rate of 53.4 percent, which represents a post-World War II high.

• Young Americans' lifetime earning potential will be dramatically diminished.

• Their entrance into the economy will be delayed due to the exceedingly slow recovery.

• Young workers have borne the brunt of the epidemic of job losses: a total of 6.9 million jobs have been lost.

• Heidi Shierholz, an economist with the Economic Policy Institute, describe the situation as "extremely dire... [t]his group won't do as well as their parents unless the jobs situation changes."

• Al Angrisani, a former assistant Labor Department secretary under President Reagan, pins the blame on the Pelosi-Obama-Reid Democrats who constructed a "stimulus" package hostile to small business. "There is no assistance provided for the development of job growth through small businesses, which create 70 percent of the jobs in the country... All those [unemployed young people] should be getting hired by small businesses."

• He also believes that the Obama economic team -- led by academics like Larry Summers -- have no experience with small businesses, have never started or grown a business, have never been entrepreneurs. He recommends tax credits for small businesses to spur hiring.

• A study by the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth states that the damage to a young person's career by a recession can last 15 years. And any delay into the workforce also postpones their major purchases, thereby further dampening a recovery.

• Angrisani also notes the futility of extending unemployment benefits, likening it to a "narcotic that is keeping the unemployed content -- but doing little to get them jobs."

• Labor statistics also show that the number of chronically unemployed -- those without a job for 27 weeks or more -- also hit a post-WWII high.

Those are the changes you have to believe in: they're facts.

Hey -- I've got an idea! How about a second "stimulus" package? Who's with me? Besides the SEIU, that is.