Millennial Money

BIO

Cliff Mason is the author of Millennial Money. He is the Senior Writer of CNBC's Mad Money with Jim Cramer, and has been that program's primary writer, in cooperation with and under the supervision of Jim Cramer, since he began at CNBC as an intern during the summer of 2005. Mason was the author of a column at TheStreet.com during 2007, which he describes as "hilarious, if short-lived." He graduated from Harvard College in 2007. It was at Harvard that Mason learned to multi-task, mastering the art of seeming to pay attention to professors while writing scripts for Mad Money. Mason has co-written two books with Jim Cramer: Jim Cramer's Mad Money: Watch TV, Get Rich and Stay Mad For Life: Get Rich, Stay Rich (Make Your Kids Even Richer). He is 100% responsible for any parts of either book that you did not like. Mason has also had a fruitful relationship with Jim Cramer as his nephew for the last 23 years and will hopefully continue to hold that position for many more as long as he doesn't do anything to get himself kicked out of the family.

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Class Warfare: Grad Vs Grad

Published: Monday, 6 Jul 2009 | 4:02 PM ET

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By: Cliff Mason
Senior Writer, Mad Money

Graduation
Maybe it's just the Marxist in me, but I can't help feeling like every time I read about the economic travails of the under-30 set, the writers seem totally blind to even the slightest notion that "class," whether it be social or economic - or socioeconomic if you want to make yourself sound smart - matters.

I'll be reading about how college students are coming home to live with their parents for the summer because they can't get the jobs they were hoping to have, with family tensions rising because they can't help pay the bills, and then in the next paragraph, as though these two things are the same, it's all about how other kids have been forced to curtail their plans for backpacking in Europe over the summer. Somehow the idea that these two things are in no way equivalent just passes under the radar.
Your Job, Your Life | A CNBC Special Report

That's bizarre enough on its own, but if there's one thing that this recession should have hammered home to people, it's NOT that we're all in the same boat, but rather that people from wealthy backgrounds are hurting a whole lot less than than the poor and the middle class (the real middle class, not people making mid six-figure salaries who politely call themselves middle class).

Now in some sense, that kind of statement is so blindingly obvious that it can remain unsaid, but given how often I see this sentiment ignored, I think it's worth hammering the point home.

And hammer I will. Big New York City law-firms are paying people just out of law school $80,000 a year to NOT WORK, in exchange for a promise to come back in a year when hopefully there's more business to go around. Now, I'm sure that feels like the end of the world to some of the high-achieving young lawyers who were hoping to make double that amount and get their careers on track early on, but that's a great deal.

It is nothing like recent college grads from non-elite schools being totally unable to find jobs. There is no comparison, none, so please don't try to make one.

Like I said, we're not all in the same boat. Young people with elite credentials may be sailing against the wind, but that's a very different situation from their peers who are taking on water and praying they don't have to go down with the ship.

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