Over-indebted American Baby Boomers have raised their Millennial children in their own image. They have passed on their proclivity for living beyond one's means to a new generation. Gen-Y continues to take on new debt in the form of unpayable student loans.
The Project on Student Debt noted last November that average college debt for the class of 2013 was two percent higher per graduate than the prior year. Debt.org notes that total US student debt still tops $1T. Carrying so much debt would not be so bad in a normal economic expansion. The problem today is that personal income growth has slowed to a trickle. Median incomes for most middle class demographics, however you slice them, have not increased since the early 1970s after adjusting for inflation.
Baby Boomers have an average net worth of maybe a buck fifty because hardly any of them saved anything for retirement. They all counted on Social Security, which is in financial peril according to the Bowles-Simpson commission as long as its recipients aren't means-tested. Millennials have done their parents' generation one better. They are going for negative net worth rather than merely going for broke.
The Project on Student Debt noted last November that average college debt for the class of 2013 was two percent higher per graduate than the prior year. Debt.org notes that total US student debt still tops $1T. Carrying so much debt would not be so bad in a normal economic expansion. The problem today is that personal income growth has slowed to a trickle. Median incomes for most middle class demographics, however you slice them, have not increased since the early 1970s after adjusting for inflation.
Baby Boomers have an average net worth of maybe a buck fifty because hardly any of them saved anything for retirement. They all counted on Social Security, which is in financial peril according to the Bowles-Simpson commission as long as its recipients aren't means-tested. Millennials have done their parents' generation one better. They are going for negative net worth rather than merely going for broke.