25-year-old Pulitzer Prize nominee Anya Kamenetz is worried about her peers, and herself. In her new book Generation Debt, the Village Voice columnist outlines the key factors damning her age bracket: student loans with exorbitant interest rates, dead-end, low-paying and temporary jobs, lack of health insurance, Social Security instability, and media, culture and families who view her generation as lazy and apathetic.
GOTHAMIST: Can you summarize the premise of Generation Debt?
KAMENETZ: Over the last generation, there's been a sharp drop-off in the quality of opportunities offered to young people, caused by a huge divestment in K-16 education, and the devolution of the job market to this low-wage, service-sector deal on the non-BA side, and part-time, unpaid-intern, temporary, contract, and freelance work on the college-grad side. A college degree is now a crucial pass for entry into the middle class, and yet young people are no more likely to have one than our parents--only 28 percent get one. And for those who do graduate, two-thirds are borrowing student loans, graduating with between $17,600 and $23,000 in debt. Because they can't make ends meet, people under 35 are running up an average of $4000 in credit card debt. We've never sent out any generation into the world with that kind of mini-mortgage on their backs. And the irony is, this withdrawal of support for young people is occurring when the US desperately needs a super-sharp, highly skilled workforce to compete with what's happening in China and India, and to support the retirement of the Baby Boomers.
G: ...what surprised you the most as you delved into the topic?
K: I guess what surprised me the most is the gulf between the popular media images of young peoples' lives and what they are actually like. Middle-class, working-class kids are working their butts off to stay in school--20, 30 hours a week at a job, plus classes. They have to work so much that it takes them longer to graduate--an average of six years--which means they have to take out more loans, and on and on.
G: How do race and sex interact with these generational issues?
K: Poorly! Crudely, the younger generation is a lot more black and brown than older people are, and that seems to be having some impact on the willingness of older people to invest in them and make sure they get a fair chance. The gap in college attendance between Hispanics and whites was 5 percentage points in the 1970s; it's 11 points today. Bob Herbert ran a column last week pointing out that only a sixth of African-American kids and a twelfth of Hispanics are getting a college degree. Over half of those who do, graduate with unmanageable debt.
When it comes to women, the pay gap persists. And young women who want families are wondering who exactly is going to pay for them. Because of this delayed entry into the workforce, a lot of women in their late 20s are still just getting established in their careers and they can't exactly afford to downshift when they haven't even upshifted yet.
G: Do most young people only confront these issues once they've finished college and are first starting out in the work world? Is there anything they or their parents can do to pre-empt some of the financial burdens they'll face post-college?
K: I'd like to reiterate that "most young people" do not finish college. Only half have any college experience at all. It's true, people tend not to face reality until they are in the middle of it. People do have options to avoid financial burdens. It may be realistic to go to a community college for two years and then transfer to a state school. For almost everyone, I would say avoid getting a student credit card. Use a debit card instead. I never had a credit card until I was two years out of school, and then the only one I could get was a Capital One Visa with a $300 limit. Those were good training wheels for me
And it's a good idea for everyone–whether community college or graduate student—to approach your education as more than a period of exploration, as it's often presented to us. The fact is that it's a major investment and if it's a burden on you or your parents, you need to take responsibility to make sure it pays off. That doesn't necessarily mean you have to study accounting. But maximize your exposure to the working world—through internships, shadowing professionals, meeting people in fields you're curious about—and make sure you understand as much as possible about the path from point A, education, to point B, a job.
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(well really 
, but you know what I mean)
and while it was very difficult, I'm glad I experienced that because it made me realise the value of hard work.
That said, I have to admit had we still been living back in Mississippi...eh...now Oxford has its virtues, but I can't really see myself having been anything but suicidal at the prospect of 4 years at Ole Miss.
And it's not even in the American Heritage Dictionary!
