8. Anya Kamenetz: Generation Debt

This is grim but necessary reading.

Kamenetz reveals America to be the homicidal mother who drowns her own children in the bathtub. She dissects the policies and trends that financially depress our generation as a class.

I found the sections on education and employment of particular interest. She discusses the outrageous cost of higher education, how it is funded and asks the dangerous question of whether or not it is worth it. Especially considering that jobs are increasingly entry-level: the largest private employer in the 70's was General Motors with an average wage of $17.50 per hour, the largest private employer is now Wal-Mart and their average wage is $8 per hour.

"With the decline in need-based financial aid, academic competition is becoming a game that the ruling class plays largely against itself, like tennis."

Only 10% of college students come from the 'bottom half of the economic spectrum.' Diversity efforts have increasingly focused on race and less on class. Joining the military has become the defacto choice for ambitious working class kids.

This is the first book I have read addressing the economics of my generation. I highly recommend it.