In Which A Fox News Host Argues That Crushing Youth Unemployment Is 'The Best Thing to Happen to Them'

Here is Andrea Tantaros, one of the however-many hosts of Fox News'The Five, showing a chart of the historically horrid unemployment rates for the 18-24 year old demographic and proceeding to make one of those savvy counterintuitive arguments that earn her the big bucks: "I've argued once that maybe the economic downturn was the best thing to happen to them because then they weren't... so... everybody gets a trophy; maybe theyhadto go back home and work at the Quizno's and the Blockbuster and learn the value of a dollar."

So, to recap: The unemployment rate among 18-24 year olds is crushingly high. Andrea Tantaros looks at this and says -- quote -- "maybe the economic downturn was the best thing to happen to them," because now they can learn values.

A few things.

• If someone has a minimum wage job, they are not unemployed. Depending on their skill sets, they may be underemployed.

• When young people who have developed skill sets cannot find jobs that match their skill sets and work at minimum wage retail jobs, the economy is in poor condition.

• High unemployment is an objectively bad thing.

• When young people are unable to start their careers because of long-lasting terrible economic conditions, a bit of the future is lost.

• Young people with expensive college degrees or apprenticeships or a viable entrepreneurial vision taking jobs at low-skill retail chains deprive high school students or other brand new entrants to the economy from having those jobs.

• Suffering is bad.

• Andrea Tantaros is one of the worst people in history.

• [Nine hundred other ways of describing how wrong and immoral this is.]

[ Media Matters via Atrios ]