Today’s young people are earning less and saving less than their parents were at the same age, which is a big problem, because in addition to paying our own bills, investing in our future and saving for retirement, Millennials must also pay down a bill they didn’t ask for — the $17 trillion national debt that our parents and grandparent rung up on the federal credit card.
Our generation is beginning its lifelong fight against the debt from a poor position. Young people today are underemployed, and are saving barely 4 cents of every dollar they earn — a rate less than half of older adults. A majority of workers under the age of 25 don’t even contribute to a 401(k) retirement plan. Additionally, Millennials carry the self-imposed burden of trillions of dollars in student debt — $26,600 per student, on average — with the disadvantage of graduating into a slowly-recovering job market with 16 percent youth unemployment.
It’s become a cliche to blame the Baby Boomers for steering us into this economic hole by putting everything under the sun — Social Security hikes, Medicare and Medicaid expansions, wars, tax cuts, bailouts and Obamacare — on our national tab, and passing the 14-figure bill on to their children and grandchildren. But the truth is, Boomers are merely the most visible culprit in a multi-generational failure to spend our resources wisely.
When the Greatest Generation returned from war and built the “great society” they’re so lauded for, they did so with the understanding that future generations would sustain that society by keeping the nation’s books in order. Instead, the Boomers punted and let the debt grow — steadfastly refusing to consider changes to programs like Social Security and Medicare even as life spans increased and costs rose far beyond initial projections. Now, Generation X is doing the same, looking for short-term BandAid-type solutions instead of facing the hard decisions about entitlements and the debt that ultimately need to be made.
There’s nothing about the Millennial Generation that suggests they are inherently more savvy, more accountable and more forward-thinking than those who came before them — but they don’t really have a choice. Their parents have failed to solve America’s problems, and by default, Millennials are left with the responsibility of righting the ship before it’s too late.
Politicians who chastise entitlement reformers for “pushing granny over a cliff” should be reminded that it was their negligence that got us here, and that their failures to make tough decisions are akin to digging early graves for my generation. They refused to do the math, and their stubborn insistence on sticking to the status quo is not only reckless, but immoral.
Neither the Baby Boomers nor Generation X have actively worked to bury future generations in debt, but they did so through a need for immediate gratification without a firm sense of accountability. Millennials may well have these same flaws, but unlike their parents and grandparents, they lack the luxury of time.
We’re the first generation that has to take away the credit card from our parents, not our children. The pressure is on Millennials to grow into the responsible adults that our parents and grandparents forgot to be.
If the status quo continues, Medicare and Social Security will run out of money in 2026 and 2033, respectively, and by 2045, the government will be spending more on entitlements than it collects in revenue each year. The entitlement crisis is undoubtedly real, but Washington somehow fails to recognize that repeating past mistakes and further increasing spending will push America closer to the verge of bankruptcy, struggling to pay the interest on its debts, let alone the rest of its bills. It’s time for the country’s young billpayers stand up and put an end to this shortsighted thinking.
Conquering the the national debt isn’t a battle for the future of our country, but rather an embracing of responsibilities we didn’t ask for. Today’s young people don’t deserve the cruel fate of paying for the opulence of past generations, but passing the buck is no longer a viable option.
