Two new reports on 18-29 year-olds came out today from public policy groups Demos and American Progress.

The message that came out of the joint press conference the two just held is that the younger generation is strapped, that they are progressive and willing to pay higher taxes for things such as universal health care and cheaper college tuition, and that the government needs a new deal.

Tamara Draut, who also wrote a book about the topic a couple of years ago called “Strapped: Why America’s 20 and 30-something’s Can’t Get Ahead,” blames lower wages and the rising cost of college and housing for the “fragile” state of young Americans, who will be lucky if they can “work or educate their way into middle class.”

She backs the points up with stats galore, all which can be found in the report. I encourage you to take a look.

For example, since the 1970’s, the median earnings for young workers ages 25 to 34 have declined for men and women at all education levels except for young women with bachelor degrees—those wages have increased by 10 percent.

Student loan debt is “dampening the ability to build assets and even make jump to home ownership,” said Draut. The average grad leaves with nearly $20,000 in student loan debt; in Minnesota it’s $23,375.

And four in 10 in this generation spend more than a third of their income in rent compared to 18 percent of 18-29 year-olds in 1970 and 30 percent in

I’m a member of Gen-X. And while I listened to the call, I was reminded of an entire genre of slacker fiction by authors such as Douglas Coupland that came out. The stories starred disenfranchised young adults who also complained about poor job prospects and other financial woes.

And while I glanced through the report I was struck by how much other age groups have also lost ground. Grandma’s with too much credit card debt? Sadly, yes. Is economic suffering really divided by age?

What do you think? Do you feel as if the deck is stacked against the under-30 set? Are you a poster-child for these reports, or exactly the opposite?

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 6th, 2008 at 10:44 am and is filed under research. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.