More Americans in their early 20s are not in school and don't have jobs than average for developed nations.

Youth aged between 20 and 24 who are not in education nor in employment

As percentage of that age group

Source: The OECD

Twenty percent of Americans between the ages of 20 and 24 are neither working nor in school. That is not only costing them big time, but it will cost the country for the next half century.

From the time I got my first job at 13 until I finished my PhD at 35, I was both working and going to school for 17 years. The two both contributed to my education. Now a lot of young people don't get both kinds of education simultaneously, they don't even get to choose one or the other.