Absenteeism
According to the New York Times:
On an average day last year — the 2022-23 school year — close to 10 percent of K-12 students were not there, preliminary state data suggests. About one quarter of U.S. students qualified as chronically absent, meaning that they missed at least 10 percent of school days (or about three and a half weeks). That’s a vastly higher share than before Covid. So let's get this straight...on the upper tier, we have kids experiencing crippling anxiety over what 'brand' they are going to wear (i.e. which college(s) will accept them...and which they can afford) and then you have a full quarter of kids who can't be bothered to attend school!?!
Now let's move this forward a few years. We have record numbers of retirees (baby boomers) and one of the smaller generations of entrants (gen z)...what is the workforce going to look like? Who is going to do the work?
We have better HOPE that AI makes us vastly more productive. Otherwise, our standard of living will take a sizable hit over the next decade or so.