Generation debt : why now is a terrible time to be young / Anya Kamenetz.

Includes bibliographical references (p. 251-265).

Preface. Why I wrote this book -- About the research -- 1. Why generation debt? -- 2. College on credit -- 3. Low-wage jobs -- 4. Temp gigs ... -- 5. ... without benefits -- 6. Federal rip offs : deficits, social security, Medicare -- 7. Family troubles : love and independence -- 8. Waking up and taking charge.

An emerging spokesperson for a new generation addresses the grim state of young people today--and tells us how we can, and must, save our future. The nature of youth is to question, SO when 24-year-old Kamenetz started out as a journalist, she began asking hard questions for which no one seemed to have good answers. Why were her friends thousands of dollars in credit-card debt? Why did so many jobs for people under thirty-five involve a plastic name badge, last only for the short-term, and not include benefits? With record deficits and threats to Social Security, what kind of future was shaping up for the nation's kids? In this book, she talks to experts in economics, labor markets, the health-care industry, and education, and amasses a startling array of evidence that building a secure life is harder for young people today than it was thirty years ago.--From publisher description.