We've all heard the phrases tossed around about how "lazy" and "apathetic" our generation is. We only want to play video games, take drugs and go out clubbing. God knows I have heard old people say these things. The fact is our generation faces many difficult choices involving entitlements, job security, climate change and America's place in the world. Our parents and grandparents, while facing some of the same challenges, never had to grapple with exorbitant college tuition and a globalizing job market.
The most pertinent issue for many students here at AU is the price of college tuition. While college tuition has risen dramatically over the last 20 years, the job market has become more competitive, and your AU undergraduate diploma has come to mean less and less. In many ways, these new realities are just the tip of the iceberg in regards to the future we all will face.
As the value of a college degree in today's job market continues to weaken, those with only a high school education are faced with even fewer options. In previous generations, high school graduates were able to secure good-paying jobs and benefits in the manufacturing and automotive industries, comprising the middle class backbone of the United States. Many of these jobs have moved overseas or been downsized and minimum wage jobs in the service industry present the only option for many. In her book, "Generation Debt," Anya Kamenetz points out, "In 1970, high school graduates entered the world of GM and $17.50 an hour. In 2006, they enter the world of Wal-Mart and $8 an hour."
Most people assume that their college degrees will open doors to the white-collar world of high-figured incomes. In order to achieve these ends and continue to enjoy the lifestyle they are accustomed to, young Americans saddle themselves with debt. Kamentz reveals, "Tuition has been rising two or three times faster than inflation for three decades. . Tuition at public colleges, where 76 percent of American students enrolled, went up 59 percent after inflation between 1994 and 1995, and 2004 and 2005; median family income went up just 2 percent." People are acquiring massive debts to pay exorbitant college tuition fees and, as a result, struggle for the rest of their young lives to pay off creditors.
David Walker, the comptroller general of the United States (i.e. the nation's top accountant) said on "60 Minutes" that we suffer from a financial cancer. The looming crisis stems, Walker argues, from massive entitlement programs we can no longer afford coupled with the baby boomer generation's nearing retirement. Over the next 25 years, 78 million Americans will draw on Medicare and Social Security as the U.S. government is forced to pick up the check. The recent prescription drug benefit tacked on to Medicare and championed by the politicians on both sides of the aisle only moved the financial cancer to an advanced stage. According to Walker, "the prescription drug bill was the most fiscally irresponsible legislation passed since the 1960s. . We would need to have $8 trillion invested at treasury rates to pay for [prescription drug benefits]." Just guess how much we have saved towards paying for this massive entitlement? Nada, zip, zilch, ZERO!
We live in a society that is geared toward taking care of the elderly. According to Peter G. Peterson, author of "Running on Empty," the total amount of spending on Social Security and Medicare is equal to seven times what the federal government spends on kids, including all education spending. I thought the young were the future of America? Shouldn't the scales be a little more balanced? Sure, our grandparents are the supposed "greatest generation," but was it really necessary to mortgage our future so that they would have prescription drug benefits and the like?
Our society needs to come together and make a plan for our future that is pragmatic, realistic and socially equitable to all age groups. Otherwise we, our children and our children's children are really screwed.
Tom Noble is a senior in the
School of Public Affairs.
