8It's become fashionable to demean millennials as the "snowflake" generation. Raised during the peace and prosperity of the '90s, they're often perceived as carrying an entitlement mentality and of being incapable of handling adversity. But Philip Klein sees them differently. Given the economic headwinds they faced at the start of their working lives, millennials have shown commendable fortitude. And as Klein argues, they will need to maintain this character strength going forward because further challenges loom in their future.
The aftershocks of the Great Recession, the skyrocketing cost of living, and the titanic weight of student loan debt have made the American Dream seem to be forever retreating toward the horizon. As if that weren't enough, millennials will face the largest federal debt in history as boomers retire and extract trillions of dollars from Social Security and Medicare--far more than they contributed.
Now politicians clamoring for the millennial vote in 2020 are making overtures toward socialism, and millennials are responding positively--understandably so, considering how the economic cards are stacked against them. But, as Philip Klein shows, the reality is that such policies would only make their burden infinitely heavier.
In this concise, data-driven book, Klein begins the work of brightening the future for millennials by analyzing the problem compassionately yet objectively. There are real reasons to worry about what lies ahead if nothing changes. But the facts laid out in Klein's book can steer the conversation to realistic solutions.