Michael,

I have been reading your commentary with interest and I am a millenial. I agree with your analysis regarding our generation, but I think you need to talk about the common economic problems we face such as student loans and outsourcing. For instance, I don't know anyone who doesn't have loans in my age group. And older Americans and most politicians just don't fully comprehend student loan issues and tend to hide behind glib expressions such as , student loans are "good debt." There are real perils to starting out your career with (on average) 20K in student debt, but a college education is increasingly necessary to move into the middle class. Student debt cannot be discharged in bankruptcy so there is an insecurity in this generation that really didn't exist (to this degree) for our parents.

The loans, outsourcing, lack of job security, and loss of health coverage impacts how we view the world and in part, it is why we think that our government should play a more active role in our lives. I think really addressing student loans would go far to helping build a progressive majority, but this means honestly confronting the problem. For instance, recognizing that cost of higher education far exceeds the Democratic candidates meager proposals for aid such as tax write-offs or 4k grants. And these proposals do nothing to deal with injustice of young people on disability having their checks garnished to go to student loans. Don't get me started on why credit card companies shouldn't be able to lend to people without assets. So there are real needs that millenials have that the government can address but it certainly wouldn't be in the interest of many businesses.

Posted at March 5, 2008 10:38 PM in response to The [dot] Org Boom (Beyond Obama)