Strapped: Why America's 20- and 30-Somethings Can't Get Ahead

This book generates a great deal of misunderstanding, especially among folks whom social scientists refer to as methodological individualists, people who hold that all explanations of social behavior and aggregate outcomes need be traced to the level of the individual person. Recall Margaret Thatcher's comment that "society doesn't exist," meaning that institutions such as social classes are merely convenient, though sometimes misleading, fictions. In other words, if it happens to you it's on you -- good decisions, bad decisions, good genes, bad genes ... everything that is real and has explanatory power can be traced to the individual level. There is, however, a much more plausible and useful way of making sense of the difficulties that Tamara Draut discusses in Strapped. The period from 1946 until 1972 is sometimes referred to as the Era of the Capital-Labor Social Contract. This post-WWII period occasioned rapid creation of jobs of all kinds. A job, moreover, was much more likely to pay enough so that, should they have wanted to, a man and woman could have gotten married, bought a home, and raised a family on one income. The traditional American family prevailed: the husband worked and the wife took care of the children. This was possible not because people were especially frugal, but because compensation for work was adequate to the task. With the end of the Era of the Capital-Labor Social Contract, however, more and more jobs were internationalized, out-sourced, subject to down-sizing, and eliminated through technological development. Demand for labor was diminished, compensation for work was dramatically reduced, and, of economic necessity, families with two bread-winners became the norm. People who chose to live alone had an increasingly difficult time. Things once regarded as taken-for-granted necessities, such as a house or a car, were unaffordable without credit. Greed and an unrealistic sense of entitlement had little or nothing to do with it. People simply did not make enough money to maintain the rudiments of a middle class life style. This sort of development cannot be traced back to the individual. Instead one must recognize the reality of institutions such as classes, labor markets, and shared internationalization among the organizations that constitute big capital. Given the opportunity, employers of all kinds will drive down wages. It's the rational thing to do. After all, their purpose is to make profit. When their only antagonist is a disorganized, non-internationalized working class, they will experience enormous success. It is interesting to speculate that the current credit crunch in the U.S. is due largely to the fact that people who wanted to live decently had no choice but to borrow. Compensation for work was simply inadequate. None of this presupposes recklessly living beyond one's means. Instead, the Era of the Capital-Labor Social Contract set a standard for a decent life. With the passing

I have 3 Gen X kids and relate to this book, it's right on the big current issues. But I hope readers will try to figure out how to save themselves, I see don't any message but the politicians letting us down. The problem Tamara covers however may not be a political issue as much the dawn of a new competitive generation of global competition raising standard of other countries as our economy and government deals with the problems of international trade and our own internal problems. Which is wonderful for business but hard on average workers. How can our society do more for the people when the real problem may be a bigger age changing event? Tamara needs to follow up this book with a "How young people can make the system work for them in spite of problems" and not count on the government for entitlement because that is not going to happen in our lifetimes. It's not a good time for young people, not a good time for Democrats, and not a good time for Republicans. We need new thinking in our government and were not getting it because all we have is the old guard career politicians in-fighting and bashing of each other to get votes. Politicians are more intent on getting re-elected and satisfying big campaign contributors rather than watching the store and helping our young people get a leg up. But I think this book has relevance! I recommend this as a good read. Tamara is a talented writer and has done her homework. Just think for yourself how not to become a victim of things that you can not control.

This is a very valuable book - for two reasons. On the one hand, it provides a general overview of a series of myths about the USA. On the other hand, it shows the actual reality behind those myths, and how this currently affects young adults' lives. Myths, incidentally, are "something that many people believe but that does not exist or is false" (according to the dictionary). Throughout the book, the author defends one of the greatest modern myths, the American Dream - which should be attainable to everyone, whatever your background. Draut argues that "American values" are all about building a just society, where everybody has "equal opportunities" to make it to the celebrated "middle-class". In this context, college education should be available for everyone - being the first stage in a process of "upward mobility" for the masses of underprivileged Americans. They should be "rewarded" for their "hard work" by being allowed to attain all the "amenities" of middle-class life: a stable and well-paid job, enduring security, a comfy home with garden, happy children, guaranteed retirement. All this, preferably, somewhere in the big city (or suburbs), with access to all the "cultural stimulation" and "career opportunities". After painting this picture of the ideal life, the author shows that the "baby boomer" generation had a much greater chance of attaining all these goodies and pleasures than their children, the "generation X", will ever have. Of course, only some baby boomers "made it" to the middle-class - since inequality is inherent to any (industrial) society, and the USA sure have thrived on all the poor and huddled masses welcomed (and kept) as cheap labour throughout the centuries (a practice that has continued in full force with globalization). But Draut does have a point when she claims that the ones who THOUGHT they were already middle-class or just a step away from it are now confronted with continual obstacles. The middle-class is not taking any more newcomers. In fact, it's even kicking out many of its members. Is this really so surprising? Or was it all just one grand illusion anyway? After looking at all the neat promises incorporated by the American Dream, it would be adequate to actually confront the desert of the REAL. Draut's book is here very helpful. Through comparisons between "baby boomers" and "Xers", interviews, statistics, examination of public policies, and a historical overview of major socio-economic changes, the author shows what today's young adults are actually achieving. Instead of the dream, they basically have to content themselves with Junk. College and university education remain easily accessible for the higher classes and basically inaccessible for the lower ones, because of high fees - so much for equal opportunity. In order to attain even a low-quality college degree, most young adults end up indebted and spend the next decade or so of their lives trying to get rid of the debt. But since all th

Strapped: Why America's 20- and 30-Somethings Can't Get Ahead (written by Tamara Draut and published two weeks ago by Doubleday) is the book that Gen Xers everywhere will want to staple to the foreheads of their parents and in-laws. If you are over 40, read it to understand why you can't seem to get your children out of your pocketbook (or possibly your basement). If you're under 40, read it and weep with the understanding that the financial chaos of your life is at least not entirely your own fault. Strapped is an indictment of the unique financial barriers faced by those born between 1971 and 1987 (a.k.a. "Generation X") as they attempt to achieve the traditional earmarks of adulthood - career, homeownership, marriage, and children. Armed with her journalism degree and her Lexis-Nexis account, Draut wastes no ink on cozying up to her readers. She lays out her arguments with a terse certainty and a firing squad of facts that mow down any counterarguments before they even take root. Most 18- to 34-year-olds will recognize at least some of the barriers Draut identifies. First, the necessity of a college education and the astronomical debt incurred to pursue it. Gen Xers have entered adulthood in the globalized economy of the Information Age, in which blue-collar and manufacturing jobs are no longer a ticket to the middle-class. They must choose between pursuing a professional career or being condemned to a life of low-wage service work. At the same time, tuition costs have skyrocketed while financial aid has been reduced to mostly subsidized loans, resulting in what Draut calls the "debt for diploma" system. A college degree is no longer the intellectual pursuit of those most suited for the professions; it has become essential post-secondary vocational training for which Gen Xers are starting their adult lives in an average of $20,000 worth of debt. If they're lucky, servicing that debt only eats up most of their disposable income. The unlucky ones will spend their lives hounded by the Department of Education for default. All this is compounded by the death of real wages, benefits, and job security. After adjusting for inflation, Gen Xers are earning an average of $13,000 a year less than their parents were at the same age, while working longer hours for fewer benefits and a greater likelihood of being terminated or laid off. Even ignoring the higher rates of involuntary unemployment, Gen Xers are more likely to bounce from one job to another in pursuit of better earnings and more attractive benefits - such as any health insurance whatsoever. Higher use of credit completes the perfect storm. With student loans chewing up their comparably meager paychecks, the under-35 set is forced to rely on the deregulated credit industry for any unforeseen expenses, such as car repairs, job losses, and uninsured health care. Saddled with this kind of debt before the age of 30, many young adults are in financial holes they can never climb out of, before thei

As a very recent father, my wife and I have gone through precicely what this incredibly well researched and well written book address. Despite our two income household we were worried sick about being able to afford to have our child. Tamara addresses head on the common critiqe levelled by the proverbial bad parent of society that "kids today are over indulgent and its all their own fault anyways". I was shocked by some of the reviewers of this book that they had the audacity to level that "old chestnut" of quit complaining life's hard and you did it to yourself (who thinks a CDs a luxury anyways?). The only conclusion I could reach was that they had not really bothered to read the book at all...that their presuppositions prevented any actual analysis (like harping on why Higher Ed costs have risen???Irrelevant to the books entire premise) What Draut cogently lays out is that there are measurable differences in todays world that make starting out more expensive and more difficult for "young adults". Tamara's purpose is to give a generation the collective knowledge that it isn't just them...that for a vast majority of them who work extremely hard and play by the rules, a headwind does exist that was not there a generation ago. Ultimately, I think she is saying keep working hard, but be sure to engage in the process and plug back in and lets see what solutions exist to remove as much of that headwind as is sensible, policy wise, to do so. Housing is more expensive, raising a child is more expensive, those at the bottom of the payscale have less job security--those things are real- and Draut makes this unquestionable with her expert use of statistics. The book was as didactic as it was cathartic and its about time our generation emerged with a reasoned voice and said we can make it easier for those that follow--I think Mrs. Draut has provided the foundation for that awakening. My wife and I are going to keep working hard--like almost all of our generation--and raise our kids properly, as we always have. And thanks to "Strapped", we can now drown out those harmful voices of inter-generational shame, and substitute them with humanizing FACTS that show us we are not alone...the headwind might not go away, but this book has made us aware of it and allowed us to understand it...and that I think is Draut's real gift to us all with this great book.