ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION is the root of the problem. Draut should BLAME LIBERALS!

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	• Strapped: Why America's 20- and 30-Somethings Can't Get Ahead Tamara Draut Doubleday, 2006 - 288 pages average customer review:based on 58 reviews view larger image
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Mixed Feelings

"Strapped" is a book that left me with mixed feeling, Ms. Draut seem to blame all of the debt on going to college, but lets face there are a lot of factors for Gen Xers being in debt. One could that that debt is somethig that we learn from our parents, in our parents race to keep up the jones, they incure debt and as their children,we learn all about credit cards from them. This is something that Ms. Draut does not good into. Another factor that Ms. Draut does not talk about, is now some of us Gen Xer's are having help care for pre-boomer parents, therefore we are having put aside our own goals to care for them. Ms. Draut makes debt seem to be based one problem, but its face it, debt comes from different sources and so the solutions.

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ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION is the root of the problem. Draut should BLAME LIBERALS!

Draut does a great job in describing the reality of what effects young people today. However, she does a terrible job in describing the cause, in that keeps referring to "conservatives" as the problem and "liberals" as the solution.

As long as we have mass illegal immigration, housing costs will continue to skyrocket. Speaking of rockets, it doesn't take rocket science to understand the LAW OF SUPPLY AND DEMAND. With mass immigration, demand for housing goes up, while supply within a given region is constant. (Yes, supply of housing also increases, but generally only in rural areas where there are no jobs. Developed regions that provide jobs have no room for additional housing supply growth). This is good for people who are already settled, in other words, people who already own their own home. But if you are young and trying to leave the nest and buy your own new home, it is terrible. If you want to make housing more affordable, stop illegal immigration.

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Neccessary Book

Being 33, well-eduacted and ..well...broke, ..and..excuse me...thrifty and hard working...I read this book with great interest. The reviewer below does bellow a few reactions I might have predicted from this book but the fact is, the examples in this book are not full of irresponsible spenders. However, he does have a point that colleges themselves might take more responsiblity in keeping their costs down considering recent scandals in California (including a suicide) over kickbacks and absurd aministrative pay.
I found this book a page turner and could hardly put it down. I am not a big fan of "think tanks" and if there was only 1 think tank in the world that would be 100 too many for me. However, forgiving the author of this background I found this book highly compeling.
For me, the research in this book almost comes accross as a diagnostic analysis of the shrinking US middle class and an observation of a stratisfying society in process. Taxes, college or whatever, a stratisfied soceity is a recipe for problems no matter how you cut it.
The author repeats her theories as to why things have become so challenging for America's younger folks so many times it's as if she's trying to convince herself that she has found the culprits. I think she makes good headway and the best part of it is that Mrs. Draut gets the conversation going and this is crucial. I suggest the author read "One With Nineveh" by Paul and Ann Ehrlich to get a vast "pan-out" of global problems which probably are influencing the problems this author describes.
The saddest and scariest part of this book for me is the author's observations that today's Americans under 35 have no idea how politics work, don't read the newspaper or have any idea about current events. She describes a tuned-out and ignorant generation. She has her own theories as to why this is the case but I think it might be the result of decades of ad culture and the added toxic effects of peer pressure, i.e. "following politics and current events..isn't..well...COOL.". It means possibly disagreeing with your friends or confronting your own ignorance in matters. Two things that Gen Xers do not enjoy experiencing. The scariest thing about this for me is that eventually a generation will come to power to a country that has enough nuclear weapons to destroy the Earth seven times and it will be run by people that know a lot more about who Beck samples or what Puff Daddy is wearing than they do about, say, the Kyoto Treaty or what UNESCO does or why we should care about what's going on Indonesia for random example.
Tamara Draut begins a very very very important conversation here that the whole nation should be talking about whether one agrees with her take on the possible solutions or not. I hope this author is able to get more attention to the issues addressed here. It is only by fluke that I even became aware of this book. Maybe the way I came about becomming aware of "Strapped" is an example unto itself. I was listening to public radio at work and a short segment about the book came on. My fellow Gen-X co-workers physically threatened me to change the radio back to the Rap station. Seriously. I didn't and listened to the piece and have just read the book. I no longer work with them and am currently looking for a new job.

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reviews: 1, 2, 3, page 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12

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