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Downward Mobility

Joel Kotkin, himself a Boomer, blames the Boomers:  The screwed generation also enters adulthood loaded down by a mountain of boomer- and senior-incurred debt—debt that spirals ever more out of control. The public debt constitutes a toxic legacy handed over to offspring who will have to pay it off in at least three ways: through […]

Joel Kotkin, himself a Boomer, blames the Boomers:

 The screwed generation also enters adulthood loaded down by a mountain of boomer- and senior-incurred debt—debt that spirals ever more out of control. The public debt constitutes a toxic legacy handed over to offspring who will have to pay it off in at least three ways: through higher taxes, less infrastructure and social spending, and, fatefully, the prospect of painfully slow growth for the foreseeable future.

But he also blames them … and the Boomers, again:

Then there is the debt that the millennials have incurred themselves. The average student, according to Forbes, already carries $12,700 in credit-card and other kinds of debt. Student loans have grown consistently over the last few decades to an average of $27,000 each. Nationwide in the U.S., tuition debt is close to $1 trillion.

This debt often results from the advice of teachers, largely boomers, that only more education—for which costs have risen at twice the rate of inflation since 2000—could solve the long-term issues of the young. “Our generation decided to go to school and continue into even higher forms of education like master’s and Ph.D. programs, thinking this will give us an edge,” notes Lizzie Guerra, a recent graduate from San Francisco State. “However, we found ourselves incredibly educated but drowning in piles of student loans with a job market that still isn’t hiring.”

An average of $12,700 in credit card debt?! The mind boggles, the sphincter opens…

And finally, says Kotkin, both the Democrats and the Republicans are screwing Millennials:

Republicans want to deport young Latinos while cutting investments, such as roads and skills education, that would benefit younger voters. Democrats, meanwhile, seem determined to mortgage the future with high spending on pensions, predominantly for aging boomers; cascading indebtedness; and economic policies unfriendly to the rapid growth necessary to assure upward mobility for the new generation.

Read the whole thing.  My oldest kid is only six years away from his freshman year at university. I was going to ask you all to buy my forthcoming book so you can send my children to college, but now I think I’ll need to ask you all to do so to add to the Support My Un-and-Underemployed Kids Until They’re 35 Fund.

I shouldn’t joke. This is scary stuff.

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