It is time for our Young people to shine and lead the way!

Throughout the course of the past two weeks I have been actively involved with +Alex Murray and the #L4GYouth project and this has resulted in conversations and observations regarding the young people in our society today... I have come to the conclusion that we have not only let them down enormously but that we owe them a huge apology too... The next generation folks is all we have... and yet what we have served up as a future for them is not very appealing...

1. If they can afford a car then they can't afford to insure it
2. No prospect of a home they can call their own (rented or owned)
3. Poor work opportunities (1 million young people unemployed)
4. Educated as robots for a world that no longer exists
5. A country which is insolvent and riddled with £1.47 Trillion in personal debt alone, which stagnates the population and limits options for change
6. Stolen their creativity and problem solving skills through a prescriptive and box ticking education
7. A world that began leeching money from then and creating a debt mindset before they even knew it...

Well I suspect like me looking at that list you can understand why many of our young people feel pretty hopeless about life (700,000 feel that way). I hear that our young people are pretty apathetic... it is difficult to get them to get excited about work placements. Well let's put ourselves in their shoes... wouldn't you feel pretty apathetic too? We have already disempowered them and created through a sausage machine education system a new set of young people conditioned for a life of acceptance the way it is...

The prospects are... do any job... one we don't even really want because that's better than nothing... and a life of working 5 days a week in something that doesn't really do it for them, so they can enjoy a couple of days at the weekend... How could we have done this? ... did we just take our eye of the ball? ... don't we care about the next generation? ... perhaps we need then to empathise with the Baby boomers a little first.

I am one of the baby boomer generation, we were brought up by parents who loathed debt. We were taught to be competitive... we were taught to want more of everything and encouraged to have more 'stuff' than our parents, quicker than they did... and we went for it. The 'now' culture was born... and we fed this on to our children... house price rises meant we could pay off maxed out credit cards with equity release and whilst salaries never rose in real terms for 20+ years we all felt better off as we fuelled our life styles with debt.

Now young people of the UK... do not look to the baby boomer generation to fix this problem. They are caught on the treadmill and a web of debt. This is a population largely trapped by the system who must continue to serve their master to maintain what they have... to step off the treadmill is to risk everything, to lose what they have worked for all their lives... this is not a place to look for innovation... however... there are those who have escaped... there are those amongst this generation wise with years who recognise in the unsustainability of what has been created and have prepared themselves for the next big challenge.

I call out to you Young people of today. Throw away the apathy and despondency for we must look to you to create the future that you want to live in... You have a lot more going for you than you know

• You are not riddled with debt (well not too much of it)
• An opportunity to build something better
• You have the tools (internet)
• You have been collaborating with each other by instinct
• You are all in this together
• You have nothing to lose
• You have the support of many around you who have been awakened to the challenge
• The timing is perfect... and the time is now

I believe for the young people of today this is both the biggest opportunity and the biggest challenge of your time. You must forget the conditioning that has been fed to you. The old tools of the trade; the constant chase for money, worth based on possessions, greed, ego, competition and scarcity no longer serve us... now we must look to people and relationships, worth based on contribution and values, fairness, humility, collaboration and abundance...

This transformation does not require money... it does not require permission... it requires simply a change to our thinking and belief systems. What we think is true is what we have been conditioned to believe... and the young people of today have been conditioned to believe (by their parents and those around them) that what we have is it... that's all there is... that is the way it is... let me tell you right here and now... that is a lie!

Young people of today... do not accept the lot which has been allocated to you... this can be changed, but you have to accept the responsibility to change it! ... there is no one else who needs this changed more than you, and if you work together with those from the older generation who 'get it' the door is open for you to create the future that you want to see.

It's a huge task... But it's not impossible, time to imagine the world you want... Not the one you thought you could have... The one the last generation created is not great £1.47 Trillion in personal debt... £60k for each household... yep we messed up big!! ... and then some!!  What an inheritance we left you? ... We stole from your future with our greed... our desire for more of everything and ego... And yet... We lost sight of what was important... YOU... we turned a blind eye and left your future in the hands of other people...

It is time to think differently... To have a new set of principles based on core values and principles not possessions...

Giving not Taking
   Everyone is equal
      Everyone is important
         Everyone can play a part
            Everyone can have a voice
               Collaboration not competition
                  Abundance not Scarcity

I see before me a whole host of young talent (with 1 million unemployed)... There is much to do and we can do it using tools and an infrastructure that exists...

• We can have YOUR vision for the future
• We can work together and collaborate
• You can tap into those with contacts & experiences of your parents generation
• You can rebuild from the grass roots
• You have the energy
• You have the appetite
• You have the technology 
• You don't have the baggage... 
• You do not have to get on the treadmill, you do not have to give away your freedom to those who would control you with a lust for money!!

The answer is not to succumb to the system that previous generations have built... not to just fit in and accept the inequality of the mess that exists ... The answer is to create something that is much fairer and much more equal... You, the young people of today already have the foundations in place. Adept with technology, collaboration and sharing comes as standard, you've been using social platforms for years and you recognise through painful experience that there is fundamentally something not quite right going on with the world...

Well it is time for change, we need a transformation and yes... it is a bit scary too! So... who wants to go where where we haven't been before?

Together you can make a difference
Together you can create a sustainable future
Together you can create a fairer future
Together you can recreate the community we lost
... and together in a people led society we can all be much happier

There is enough in the world for us all ... and like I have said many times before we can tell you where this will start but we do not know yet where it will all end!! ... You have now to decide... With what you know now... You can...

Close your eyes... Accept the inequalities of the world and that you are unable to do anything about it... Wake up tomorrow and get on with struggling in the world as it is... As if nothing ever happened...

Or... Decide that you deserve more than the scraps from the table and a life on a treadmill of debt and inequality...

It is a simple choice... The Red or the Blue Pill??