Great book for getting you to think about the problems facing our generation!

books:


	• Strapped: Why America's 20- and 30-Somethings Can't Get Ahead Tamara Draut Doubleday, 2006 - 288 pages average customer review:based on 57 reviews view larger image
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Great book for getting you to think about the problems facing our generation!

The author built a good case that young people are not as well off economically as previous generations, which most people in the GenX/Millenial age group sense intuitively. I don't agree with what the author defines as the causes and solutions of the problems, but she definitely makes the case that these problems exist and that they need to be addressed. If you would like more detail as to what her causes and solutions are, I recommend reading through all the other reviews as they are on point in the praise and criticisms.

I recommend this book as a great read because it will get people our age to think about the problem. Unlike Ms. Draut, I am certain that we will all come to different conclusions as to what caused the problems and how to fix them, but it is vitally important that the problem be recognized and addressed. Don't fall into the Draut trap of totally absolving yourself of personal responsibility though. I have student loans and credit card debt like many young people and it weighs on me. I had to learn that being middle class is something you acquire, it is not a birthright (unless you have a generous trust fund). To that end I have read financial books, instituted a plan for paying down debt and I am happy to say that I am 1/2 of the way through paying off my credit card debt and will finish paying that within a year (knock on wood!).

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It's Dead On

This book is dead on about all my views of this new generation we are all coping with it. Tamara hits on the fact that the kids of today would love to provide as our parents did, but are unable to due to everything being priced out of reach or the government giving little to no help for the working lower middle class.

I highly recommend this book if you're having doubts about your abilities to provide for your future, or now. You'll learn that it's not just you and your lack of self discipline to save. Trust me. Read it. It's worth it.

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Hard Times are here....

...and harder times, they are a-comin'. Tamara Draut writes what is true. My generation (Gen X) is in deep trouble. No matter if we "go by the playbook", as she writes, no matter what steps we take, we'll still end up bilked and impoverished because of a government that only cares about lining the pockets of the super-rich few. I'm only in my mid-20s, and I've been a "bouncer", and "tempster", and am now a "juggler", earning barely enough to survive in a job with long hours, but at least I don't have to worry about being pink-slipped any day like in others; I both work for and take 1-2 classes at the local community college, and it's the absolute best out there that I can do. Draut underlines the fact we are not lazy and do not have bad work ethics; the opportunities just aren't there any more. How much worse does it have to get before it gets better?

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

Drowning in student loan and credit card debt? Can?t afford to get married, buy a home, have children? At last, a book for the under-35 generation (and their parents) that explains why it is not their fault.

Strapped offers a groundbreaking look at the new obstacle course facing young adults?the under-35 crowd?as they try to build careers, buy homes, and start families. As Tamara Draut explains, getting ahead is getting harder. A college degree is the new high school diploma?but it now costs a fortune to get that degree, and students graduate with crippling debts. Good jobs are scarcer thanks to stagnant wages and disappearing benefits. And, the cost of everything?starter homes, health coverage, child care?keeps going up and up. Budding families, even those with two incomes, struggle to pay the bills, while Visa and Mastercard have become the new safety net. Young adults are starting out behind the financial eight ball?borrowing their way into adulthood and wondering whatever happened to the American Dream.

Is this the way things have to be? Not at all, argues Tamara Draut, a leading young commentator and a fresh voice for change. She shows how the obstacle course bedeviling young adults didn?t just happen?it was allowed to happen by a generation of leaders more interested in serving wealthy interests than in investing in the nation?s future. Strapped brims with ideas for a new kind of America where every young person can go to college, buy a home, and start a family.
Strapped will help jump-start a national conversation about where the country is failing?and how we can make it right again.

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