A New Generation of Poverty
by Our young adults are being forced to carry the burden of their parents over spending.
The past 20 years have been years of excess. As a nation we have spent, borrowed, earned and lost money at a staggering rate. We have bought homes, cars, expensive toys and travel with money we did not have. We use credit to pay for the things we wanted and use credit to pay for the charges we could not pay. We worried more about what we had and less about what we did. The idea of can I buy this vs. should I buy did not exist; if we wanted something we bought it.
We are now paying the price of our excesses, we are in the middle of a recession most people never thought could or would happen. Stocks fell, banks closed, the housing market crashed and major employers have gone into bankruptcy or closed down all together. You would think these recent events would shock the American consumer into rethinking the way they spend money. However, many consuming Americans are finding it difficult to change their spending ways and habits. As a result we are seeing young men and women in the early 20’s forgoing their own goals and dreams in order to help support their parents spending habits.
As unemployment rates soar, young adults are being forced to drop out of colleges and forgo their education to work low paying jobs so their parents, who refuse to change or cut back on their spending habit can continue to live their life of excess. This recession is causing a new generation of poverty. A generation of young people who believed they would succeed in obtaining a higher education. A generation who believed the future held a career for them not simply a job.
As we get deeper and deeper into this recession we see once again the selfishness of the previous generation, the generation of excess. As they are being pushed and challenged in ways they never thought they would be, we see them refusing to give up what they believe is their right, their right to excess. Instead of cutting back on spending and changing their excessive behaviors they are now asking their children to carry the burden for them. They are a generation greedy enough to limit their own children’s growth and potential in order to maintain their excessive standard of living.
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