Generation Debt

December 19, 2005
Surveying the economic realities facing today's 20- and 30-somethings, 24-four-old Kamenetz decides, "It's not too dramatic to say that the nation is abandoning its children." Thanks to skyrocketing tuition and changes in federal funding, college students are graduating with an average of almost $20,000 in loans at the same time that jobs have become scarcer, real wages have dropped and the cost of health care has soared. Is it any wonder that kids are boomeranging home and racking up credit card debt? Kamenetz, who first wrote about these issues for the Village Voice
, intertwines an analytical overview of the new economic obstacles with interviews of the financially strapped and descriptions of her own experience struggling to make ends meet as a freelance journalist. Her book is livelier than Tamara Draut's similarly themed Strapped
, but lighter in its analysis of law and policy. Most interestingly, Kamenetz documents how our perception of the crisis is shaped by self-centered boomers who have lost touch with their children's plight. More of a white paper than a guidebook, this volume doesn't offer under-40s much personal financial advice (that job is taken up by Gener@tion Debt
, see review below). It does, however, make clear how imperative it is that we find solutions to these problems as quickly as possible.

January 15, 2006
Journalist Kamenetz is a 24-year-old Yale graduate who has been nominated for the Pulitzer Prize for her reporting. But her credentials belie the fact that she's actually a freelancer who can't land a full-time job with benefits. That makes her living proof of the book's thesis -that the economic outlook for today's twentysomethings is far different from that of their baby-boomer parents. Although today's young adults are more likely to be college grads than their parents, that means significantly less in terms of career success or economic stability. With cutbacks in grant funding for college, students are increasingly taking on student loans as well as credit card debt to finance their education. And the shadowy side of the new economy, with its low-wage jobs, unpaid internships, permanent temp assignments, and lack of benefits, offers little to its youthful workers. What keeps Kamenetz's book from devolving into a whiny, angst-ridden rant are the frightening facts about the changing labor market, higher education funding, the federal deficit, and the burden of incurring massive debts to stay afloat in college or launch a career. Interviews with dozens of young workers and students further drive home the point that Gen Y isn't exactly living large. Recommended for public and academic library business collections. [See Prepub Alert, LJ 10/1/05.]" - Carol J. Elsen, Univ. of Wisconsin, Whitewater"

Copyright 2006 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

February 15, 2006
A new book tackles the 18-to-35-year-old generation's problems--those they face and those they create.Kamenetz believes the younger generation is hampered by the fact that salaries and job opportunities haven't kept up with drastically increasing costs of living. Because of the exorbitant cost of college, many young people can't afford to go, and those who do go graduate with huge debt. Graduates expect to pay off those loans once they get jobs, but entry-level jobs often come with low wages. The job prospects are even worse for those who don't finish or who don't go to college at all--some can't even afford living on their own, another drastically increased cost. The solution to these problems? Kamenetz makes a passionate argument for young people to take action, such as lobbying the government as a cohesive group and being practical and frugal about money matters. (Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2006, American Library Association.)