Article 2 - REVIEW OF “GENERATION DEBT” April 2006 edition of First Church of The Streets

    Is today's younger generation a bunch of slackers, or are there real economic and social factors working against them? In "Generation Debt", author Anya Kamenetz attempts to answer this question, trying to sort out the stereotype with real data.

    The book was conceived after the author contributed to a series in the Village Voice called "Generation Debt: The New Economics of Being Young". Kamenetz, a member of Generation Debt, immediately presents the debate in a generational context. Boomers lament, "what happened to the young people", while the cohort of young people, Generation Debt, muddle along, trying to find their way. Kamenetz uses hard data, as well as numerous interviews culled from members of Generation Debt, to make her case.

    Kamenetz presents herself as an ambassador for this younger generation. Throughout the book, she cites various conflicts that "Generation Debt" faces that Boomers and previous generations have not. The text is peppered with listing social problems such as rising college debt, the Social Security crisis, rising national debt, and lack of good jobs facing college graduates. She also talks of how the working class and minority population face a double whammy, being unable to fund college at all.

    The author also cites how many people, college graduate or otherwise, are stuck in low end jobs, which she calls "crap jobs". They are unable to find opportunities that will help them get out of this rut, because of downsizing, outsourcing, and other economic factors. Many people in this generation, due to economics, are unable to get the degree in the first place. And most telling, in a society that tells them the future is theirs, they can't find job that elicits passion. So they go from job to job, trying to find the right fit, or one that even pays the bills.

    Of course, this begs the question, why don't people just finish the college up? Isn't the fact that they drop out, use credit cards to get by, go home and not pay rent, proof enough that the Boomers' complaints are valid? All Americans had to work hard to get by, and why should Generation Debt's load be any lighter than anyone else's? Sure, sometimes there is downsizing. But if Generation Debt is loafing around quitting jobs just because they don't fit them, aren't their lousy resumes really their own fault? Okay, the deficit isn't their fault, and neither is the fact that Social Security is in trouble. But aren't they to blame for their lot when they quit the game?

    Kamenetz has two main answers for this. She does not blame Generation Debt for their predicament in her text, but instead says where the government goes wrong, and what Generation Debt can do better. Politically a progressive, she believes that in the name of privatization, the government has given up on its young. In her view, letting the young fend for themselves in the name of "freedom" is not only inconvenient for them, but detrimental for society in the long run.

    As far as action, Kamenetz suggests that Generation Debt turn into lobbyists themselves for their own cause, such as fighting against aggressive credit card marketing. On a personal level, she suggests living on less, and saving aggressively for retirement as early as possible. Other ideas include postponing college to see if you really want to bother, as a college degree is no guarantee for a good job. The college degree is like playing the lottery, she says. In other words, by getting the degree, you now have a chance at winning the big prize, in this case the great job, but only a chance. So why not create your own opportunities?

    "Generation Debt" is a well-thought out book, providing a plethora of data for a myriad of problems. It is possible, however, to view it simply as a scholarly rant, where the author seems unaware that the problems that her generation faces is perhaps not endemic to this cohort. Though she does a solid job in citing the unique problems of "Generation Debt", at times, the uniqueness she posits seems narrow in focus, as though unaware that the new economic factors hurt those over thirty-five, or that those over thirty-five had less struggles than those today. Her subtitle, "Why Now is a Terrible Time to be Young" is an example of this, and those who grew up with the Depression, Jim Crow laws, abject sexism, and the recessions of the seventies and eighties may feel some derision at this mindset.

    But if you are interested in hearing the voice of late Generation X and Generation Y, what their collective struggles are in the new economy, "Generation Debt" is a good book to glean an overview. The voices from the personal examples make her arguments all the more real, and give them flesh that would otherwise be missing from pure hard data. In their voices, they speak the conflicts that are silent behind "crap jobs" and too much debt. Collectively, they show the strength and fight of a generation, and how despite all the factors against them, the American dream and spirit is still alive in the young.