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Review:
Generation Debt: Why Now Is A Terrible Time To Be Young
Things
are tough all over, but Anya Kamenetz, author of Generation
Debt, thinks they may be toughest for young people. So much
so that Generation Debt carries the ominous subtitle
"Why Now Is A Terrible Time To Be Young."
In writing this book, Kamenetz understands that others may perceive
her (or her generation) as children who whine "not fair" when
things don't go their way. While she occasionally slips into
this voice ("those of us between eighteen and thirty-five have
somehow been cheated out of our inheritance" "it's not too dramatic
to say that the nation is abandoning its children"), Kamenetz
overcomes this perception by systematically detailing just how
tough things are, and how her generation really could be worse
off than that of its parents.
Kamenetz discusses many problems facing young people, including
the trend toward jobs without pensions or health care coverage,
the use of temps and freelancers over full-time employees, rising
government deficits and the potential for future cuts in Medicare
and Social Security. Many of these issues cut across all age
groups, however. Kamenetz is most convincing, and most compelling,
when she outlines the problems unique to young people. One of
their biggest problems is paying for college.
While conventional wisdom says that a college degree is almost
a requirement for substantial career prospects, skyrocketing
tuitions are pricing potential students out of the market. Financial
supports that have helped students in the past are less often
available - grant money has given way to student loans, subsidized
student loans (interest is paid by the government until after
graduation) are more often giving way to unsubsidized loans
(interest charges begin immediately).
As a result, more students work their way through college, with
sizable loans to pay off afterward. Others start college but
can't afford to finish - and the loans they took out still need
to be paid. (According to Kamenetz, one in three twenty-somethings
is a college dropout, compared to one in five in the late 1960s.)
Either way, many come out of their college experience to an
unstable job market with a mountain of debt.
Kamenetz interviewed dozens of young people from a variety of
backgrounds for Generation Debt, and she sprinkles these
personal experiences throughout the book to accentuate her points.
It's an effective tool, with interviewees running the gamut
from head-in-the-clouds, how-could-you-be-so-stupid money-wasters
to highly-responsible people who've been thwarted in their attempts
to get ahead, whether due to lack of job opportunities, inescapable
debt, or inability to pay for an education.
With any book that painstakingly details a problem, a reader
inevitably gets weary and says, "O.K., so what do we do about
it?"
One solution -- at least a partial solution -- Kamenetz offers
young people is to live within their means. Resist easy credit
and societal pressures toward material comforts.
A second solution is to fight the power - whether that means
on a political level, within a university setting, or on the
job. Kamenetz makes it clear she is a liberal, and, while she
cites some real examples of young people fighting for their
financial rights, I can't help but question whether her calls
for organizing and building political muscle are liberal fantasies.
Will students ever again muster the clout they had during the
Vietnam War? And if they could, are high college costs or lack
of health insurance enough to spur them into action? Nevertheless,
I suppose it can't hurt to try.
Generation Debt is an impressive book, especially when
you consider Anya Kamenetz wrote it at twenty-four years old.
It is well-researched, well-reasoned, and interesting enough
that I didn't feel like putting the book down despite the battering
ram of depressing news it offers. While one book won't change
the underlying causes that threaten young people's prosperity,
Generation Debt may help older generations understand
the young, and help the young realize they're not alone.
For more information on Generation Debt and author Anya
Kamenetz, visit http://www.anyakamenetz.com
or Kamenetz's blog at http://anyakamenetz.blogspot.com.
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