Strapped and Generation Debt are Right on Point

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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 59 reviews view larger image
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I can relate, mostly

The good thing about this book is that it brings out the objective facts as to why many young adults such as myself end up in debt and have a hard time getting ahead. For example, Draut is the only author to point out that car repairs, high gas prices and even groceries rack up the credit card bills, rather than frequent weekend vacations, clubbing and partying. She also points out how high student loan payments are a problem, and how one must get a college degree to work above retail, but even a Bachelor's degree is no guarentee of a high-paying job anymore. And finally, she points out how young adults are working longer hours (sometimes in 2 or 3 jobs) and getting paid less than their parents did at the same age.

There are a few small contradictions and I may not agree with every word, but overall she hits the nail on the head. Good first book.

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Strapped and Generation Debt are Right on Point

I read Strapped and Generation Debt together. I think both books are must reads for All Gen X and Gen Y and their Boomer Parents. Access to Higher Education has become less and less affordable since the election of Reagan. Policies, particularly Administrative/Executive eligibility rules tinkering and then Budget cuts and Program cuts by the Congressional/Legislative branch have resulted in fewer and fewer families being able to afford to send their kids to college.

Meanwhile cuts to Higher Education have forced the Colleges and Universities to raise their tuitions and fees. Strapped is speaking strictly to the Middle Class families and states early on this book is not addressing the needs of the Immigrants, the marginal students, the Destitute ("poor") and by extension those with special needs, language problems, etc. Strapped is focused on what has happened to college ready, high achieving students with good grades and test scores who should be in four year "Real" Universities but who are being forced "to settle" because their families can not afford out of pocket costs and do not qualify for the financial aid programs the way they are now structured and so all that is left is the choice of going to community colleges or taking out extensive loans and graduating deep in debt and then having to go to where the jobs are, which are usually in very expensive cities where the cost of living is quite high and to survive, you then resort to credit cards and the jobs found do not pay enough and many are without benefits such as health care.

Generation Debt did explore the demographic of children of immigrants and children of urban poor and gave case histories of kids who wound up in For Profit Colleges which induce its students to take out huge loans and then many times fold up and who make promises to students and do not result in jobs after the students complete their programs. Generation Debt covered the generation of Gen X and Gen Y as a whole rather than just address the needs of the shrinking middle class.

Both books should have contrasted the other industrialized countries and how their students are provided housing, stippends, apprentice/internships, low cost books, free tuition, and minimal fees because the Governments of these countries assume the costs to educate the brightest and most promising students. America's 20 to 35 year olds are not spoiled complainers.

Boomers were able to go to college when higher education was very affordable and programs were many and loans were low interest and came with a 10 month grace period. Boomers naturally raised their young to want to and expect to go to college and this is the crux of these books. Boomer families can not afford to send their own to college anymore and those kids who have gotten out, saddled deeply in debt, are now in jobs that do not pay their present day needs, much less the debts they are saddled with and now can not pursue their adult lives of trying to get married, trying to find a "starter" house, and trying to raise a family. Boomers found jobs still came with health care coverage and homes were affordable and Moms could stay at home. Today's couples both have to work and childcare that is safe is no available nor affordable and housing costs are out of sight.

How many of you would want to marry a spouse that came with 30 to 50 thousand in debt? That is what couples are encountering when they try to find mates because each one brings serious debt amounts into the relationship. Boomers did not have this reality at college graduation. The Greatest Generation, the Parents of the Boomers, who have voted all those Millionaires to Congress and the Senate and to the White House and KEPT THEM THERE the last 30 years, effectively did this to their Grandchildren and their Great Grandchildren. This is exactly what the Democrats have been saying, about how these tax cuts to the wealthy and those with good retirements will be short changing and sticking the costs of all those legislative and executive decisions down to the young and these books, Strapped and Generation Debt are telling it like it is and it is only going to get worse in years to come.

All in all I thought both books were truly balanced and full of facts well documented. People no longer live out their lives in the communities they were born and raised in. Weddings and Funerals of families and friends are "must attend" situations and it is not reasonable to expect these strapped 20 to 35 year olds to give up seeing their family and friends once or twice a year, just because they are broke. The point is, the Boomers graduated from college and generally walked into well paying jobs with paid vacations and benefits, affordable homes, and were able to start and raise families. Those Boomers who did NOT go to college still walked into well paying UNION jobs with paid vacations, overtime and bonus incentives, healthcare coverage, and were able to buy affordable homes and start and raise families too.

The Gen X and Gen Y kids can NOT Begin to make it without a College Degree and even need Graduate Degrees now and the beginning jobs are not secure, and many do not provide health coverage or any other benefits and yet require their employees to live in very costly cities. The Gen X and Gen Y kids even have to do UNPAID Internships for 6 to 12 months to even be hired by these Corporations who then do not pay enough to cover the current living costs or enable their new hires to begin to pay down educational loan debt.

When I was in my state college 1969 to 1973 in a small college town, tuition was $150/semester. Monthly rent in a furnished room with utilities, access to kitchen and bath cost $27.50/month. Gas for the VW that cost $600 was 19 cents/gal. Textbooks (used) averaged $12.00/course. Minimum wage was $1.65/hr at Sears but you could eat well for about $3.00/day. If a parent had died, who had paid into Social Security, you collected Social Security Survivor's Benefits to age 22 as long as you were a full time college student. You qualified for Food Stamps and Medicaid and even the Subsidized Heat Program and Government Commodities (Cheese, Oats, Soybeans, etc.)and were "emancipated" for purposes of financial aid eligibilty based on your income alone and not your parents financial assets.

I truly do not believe Gen X and Gen Y kids know how "doable" College was for their Boomer Parents. Despite the easy access and affordability and the incentive of avoiding the draft, even then, only about 20% actually graduated. Higher Education and the NEED to have a College Degree was really not that stressed nor emphasized, particularly to females as a Necessity for Boomers (born 1946-1964) and who were in college prior to 1980. Those serving in the Military during the Vietnam War years, who were not killed, then came back to GI Bill benefits which then enabled many to go to college as well. The programs which made college accessible and affordable were lost over the Reagan Bush years and have never truly been affordable since.

With the loss of high paying jobs, outsourcing of jobs overseas, the fact Boomers still need their jobs and have not retired yet, means Gen X and Gen Y are being squeezed and the kids yet to go to college are facing even steeper costs still.

I think Boomers and their kids really need to understand how important it is to vote the people who Did this to them, (starting back in the 1980s) OUT OF OFFICE and to keep those selfish greedy people out of Washington for good. Those in the Congress and Senate who have children and grand-children will never have to worry about access to college, access to the good paying jobs in Government and in Corporations which benefit from all the legislation that favor the rich, the powerful, the well connected at the expense of the shrinking Middle Class. If these books Strapped and Generation Debt accomplish any good at all, it will be to finally WAKE UP what's left of the Middle Class and have them unite to Vote in candidates who will begin to undo this mess that results in our future generations to be unable to survive in this country.

Most of what Clinton created to make College accessible and affordable was defunded out of existance along with the squandering of the 3.2 Trillion Surplus that was going to put Social Security in a Lockbox and provide a secure future for future generations. All that was gone before this country invaded Iraq and now we are 3.6 Trillion in National Debt and getting worse. So if anything, Strapped and Generation Debt need to be a Reality Check, a Wake UP call for Gen X and Gen Y and their parents to Vote in CHANGE starting with the elections in 2006.

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You must read this book!

Strapped: Why America's 20- and 30-Somethings Can't Get Ahead (written by Tamara Draut and published two weeks ago by Doubleday) is the book that Gen Xers everywhere will want to staple to the foreheads of their parents and in-laws. If you are over 40, read it to understand why you can't seem to get your children out of your pocketbook (or possibly your basement). If you're under 40, read it and weep with the understanding that the financial chaos of your life is at least not entirely your own fault.

Strapped is an indictment of the unique financial barriers faced by those born between 1971 and 1987 (a.k.a. "Generation X") as they attempt to achieve the traditional earmarks of adulthood - career, homeownership, marriage, and children. Armed with her journalism degree and her Lexis-Nexis account, Draut wastes no ink on cozying up to her readers. She lays out her arguments with a terse certainty and a firing squad of facts that mow down any counterarguments before they even take root.

Most 18- to 34-year-olds will recognize at least some of the barriers Draut identifies. First, the necessity of a college education and the astronomical debt incurred to pursue it. Gen Xers have entered adulthood in the globalized economy of the Information Age, in which blue-collar and manufacturing jobs are no longer a ticket to the middle-class. They must choose between pursuing a professional career or being condemned to a life of low-wage service work. At the same time, tuition costs have skyrocketed while financial aid has been reduced to mostly subsidized loans, resulting in what Draut calls the "debt for diploma" system. A college degree is no longer the intellectual pursuit of those most suited for the professions; it has become essential post-secondary vocational training for which Gen Xers are starting their adult lives in an average of $20,000 worth of debt. If they're lucky, servicing that debt only eats up most of their disposable income. The unlucky ones will spend their lives hounded by the Department of Education for default.

All this is compounded by the death of real wages, benefits, and job security. After adjusting for inflation, Gen Xers are earning an average of $13,000 a year less than their parents were at the same age, while working longer hours for fewer benefits and a greater likelihood of being terminated or laid off. Even ignoring the higher rates of involuntary unemployment, Gen Xers are more likely to bounce from one job to another in pursuit of better earnings and more attractive benefits - such as any health insurance whatsoever.

Higher use of credit completes the perfect storm. With student loans chewing up their comparably meager paychecks, the under-35 set is forced to rely on the deregulated credit industry for any unforeseen expenses, such as car repairs, job losses, and uninsured health care. Saddled with this kind of debt before the age of 30, many young adults are in financial holes they can never climb out of, before their careers are off the ground.

All of this would be bad enough even if Gen Xers didn't mind living like teenagers in their parents' basements, single and childless. The rapid rise in housing prices, coupled with deregulation of the mortgage industry, has created a generation of what Draut calls "permarenters" - young adults who are priced out of the housing market by high downpayments and crippling mortgages. Gen Xers who take the homeownership plunge can count on spending 62% more (for more modest digs) than their parents did at the same age - and going still further into debt.

The current generation of young adults is delaying parenthood significantly - first births to women over 25 has climbed to 50% from only 19% in 1970. Yet Draut contends that the choice to delay or forego childrearing is simply because Gen Xers can't afford babies, which now cost 15% more to raise than it cost our parents to raise us. Most of the increase comes from the need for (low-quality, overpriced) child care because Gen X parents must both work just to meet the basic bills, while our children receive fewer toys and amenities than we did.

I can certainly think of better people to represent my generation than Tamara Draut. Like Cintra Wilson, for example. But much worse people than Draut come to mind easily too. Like Stephanie Klein. Or Suze Orman (whom Draut inexplicably cites in her recommended reading, despite Orman's credo of living on credit cards and her obnoxiously hipster persona in The Money Book for the Young, Fabulous, and Broke, published by Penguin in 2005 and plugged on infomercials until Orman made us not only ashamed of our generation, but ashamed of our species.)

Draut's biggest problem is that she's lived in New York for so long she can say things like "Master's degrees are the new Bachelor's degrees," with no awareness of her own irony. She suffers from the self-obsessed plague which afflicts all New York writers until they are completely unaware that they don't speak for the entire country (what else can possibly explain Maureen Dowd?) They endure a cost-of-living so high that Draut consistently refers to a $50,000 annual salary as "low income."

But we must forgive her this myopic quirk. Not only because she's from New York and can't help it, but because she's got the goods and she's been broadcasting them everywhere from commentator appearances on CNN Headline News to guest columns in the Wall Street Journal. Her relentless, "just the facts, ma'am" style is meticulously documented and unassailably thorough. One gets the feeling she barreled through j-school by working like a tireless dog and then landed the WSJ gig by grabbing the editor's testicles, twisting, and demanding that he listen to her right, by God, now

But Generation X is unlikely to canonize Draut anytime soon. She will get less attention than Al Franken or Jon Stewart because she doesn't supplement her data with any entertaining clownishness. She even lacks the warm humanity of Jonathan Kozol or the smart repartee of Barbara Ehrenreich (Boomers all, I might add). Given the tendency of the Boomers to view their children as whiny, lazy, and self-indulgent, Draut simply can't afford to let any show-biz antics jeopardize her no-nonsense approach. She can't even scold the Boomers for nagging their grown children to work a little harder and save a little more. It wouldn't be fair. Because such advice worked for their generation; it's just not working for their kids.

Besides, Draut doesn't hold up nearly so well when her subject can't easily be reduced to number crunching and graphs. She admits bafflement when attempting to sort out the scholarly debate over which age demographic constitutes "Generation X" or the existence of a "Generation Y." She finally chooses the simpler option of lumping together those who came of age in the `80s with those who came of age in the `90s, despite differences between the two that could have bolstered her argument. Most of the deregulation, which laid the financial groundwork for Gen X's problems, happened under Ronald Reagan's watch and housing prices really began to balloon in the mid-90s. As a result, the older half of "Generation X" had a brief taste of attractive wages, full health coverage on the boss' dime, and affordable housing, which the younger half (sometimes called "Generation Y") never experienced at all.

In the last two chapters, Draut dives further into territory that's beyond her statistical wonkery, as she attempts to explain why Gen X isn't more politically active in our own best interests. She blames "Reaganization," lack of awareness, and no generational identity.

Sound enough reasons, but let's call them what they are - cynicism, ignorance, and exhaustion. Draut defines "Reaganization" as Gen X's vaguely libertarian ideological inconsistencies. We are the first generation to not only believe the government won't help us, but that they shouldn't even be expected to.

But Draut gives too much weight to the relatively recent anti-government bent of the neo-conservatives and not enough to postmodernism as a broad cultural influence. We didn't learn our cynicism on the knee of Alan Greenspan; we learned it from Madonna and South Park and the cults of fame, materialism, and savvy hopelessness that characterize late-postmodern pop culture.

Such cynicism leads naturally to an ignorance born of disempowerment. If it's not going to make any difference, there's not much point to keeping informed about it. We are not only the first post-War generation to face a standard of living lower than our parents, but the first generation to be significantly less informed and active politically than they were.

Draut says this is because the Boomers were able to rally around the political causes of the 1960s and thus taste their own collective power. But she ignores the obvious reason that encompasses the first three-quarters of her book - Generation X is tired all the time. Trying to make it in a much crueler world, while raising young children and fending off internalized Boomer nagging, has taken its toll. Who has time for the news when bills are going unpaid, the car is on the fritz, and the day care provider isn't working out?

Our parents were the intellectual heirs of George Orwell; we are the intellectual heirs of Ayn Rand. They were the political heirs of the New Deal; we are the political heirs of Watergate. They came of age during an optimism that fairness could be achieved through hard work; we came of age believing that no good deed would go unpunished and that we have no one to blame but ourselves.

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

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