Chapter Ten: Youth Exclusion and Empowerment in China and the United States of America

This chapter engages youth exclusion and inclusion in the circumstances of China and the United States. The importance of youths as veritable tools for the development of nations cannot be overemphasized. It is suicidal for any society to neglect its youths in the scheme of things, and in its quest for developmental goals which consist of social, economic, health and political developments. The youths are the bedrock and the foundation on which every nation builds upon in its pursuit of development and improved standards of living. The basis for positive or negative images of society rests largely on the youth as the backbone and the building block of society. Their creativities, energies, resourcefulness and dispositions define the rates at which nations are developed. Whatever noticeable strides that any nation might have recorded over time, economically, socially and/or politically, cannot be excluded from the efforts of the youths (The Nation Newspaper, 2017). Hence, they play essential roles and serve as important tools for national development. Interestingly, the evolution of any society from one generation to another is crucial to its formative and developmental aspiration. A society that prepares its youths for the sake of future aspiration will not only secure its future but equip its next set of leaders with the abilities to meet future challenges of national development ((Idike and Eme, 2015). If youths are excluded or included in the issues that are germane to the fabric of the society, such society will either experience underdevelopment and disaster or experience development, peace and progress.