Young People and the Financial Crisis
Oct 2nd, 2008 by efischermann
The financial crisis is bringing today’s generation of students back to a time before they (or we) were all born. The financial crisis is affecting young adults who have yet to enter the work force because they have to find jobs when there aren’t many openings. According to the Democratic Presidential candidate Barack Obama in an MTV.com article, after talking about the bailout and the fact that it must go through right away, he said, “If we don’t do it, it will have an impact on everybody, especially the next generation, because if the economy slows down, they’re the ones who are going to have the toughest time finding a job.”
According to Obama, students entering into college who may need financial assistance will have trouble getting the resources they need to do so. Banks will have to use their funding for necessities and resources and won’t have much left to give out for student loans and big credit payments.
An article by Demos named our generation the generation of debt as a result of student loans, credit card usage, and the consequences of both. According to this article, young adults have been struggling to put their money into savings to save money for retirement since the early 1980s. “Over the last 20 years, our nation’s personal savings rate has plummeted from about 8% throughout the 1980’s and early 1990’s to zero in 2005-its lowest point since the great depression.”
Young adults are at the beginning of their adult lives, and it will be hard to pull out of an uphill battle like this. Young adults like us are concerned with the financial crisis because it leaves us in a tough spot for getting into the work force, and considering the economy probably won’t turn around for a few more years, we are just going to have to deal with it.
Obama Article
http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1595818/20080927/story.jhtml
Demos Article
http://www.demos-usa.org/pubs/yaes_web_debt.pdf
Video
http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1595818/20080927/story.jhtml
by Eddie Fischermann and Liz Tannura