NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Are people currently in their 20s and 30s the first generation that won’t do financially better than their parents? Columnist and author Anya Kamenetz poses this question in her book Generation Debt: Why Now is a Terrible Time to be Young and will discuss her findings Tuesday, April 24, at 7 p.m. in Room 114 of Vanderbilt University‘s Furman Hall.
Her lecture, which is free and open to the public, is part of the Project Dialogue series, a yearlong, university-wide program that seeks to involve the entire Vanderbilt community in public discourse and reflection and connect classroom learning with larger societal issues. The theme of the series for this academic year is “Generation Lap: The Rising of the Millennials.”
Kamenetz’s book has drawn national media attention and sparked debate. She points to the rising cost of higher education, soaring student loan and credit card debt, stagnant earnings in an uncertain job market, international competition and Baby Boomers’ retirement as factors that may hinder young adults’ pursuit of the American Dream.
She advocates for financial responsibility, cost controls on higher education, greater investment in vocational programs, health care policies that cover young adults and credit laws that protect consumers from excessive high-interest debt.
Since graduating from Yale University in 2002, Kamenetz has lived in Manhattan and worked as a freelance writer. In 2004, The Village Voice nominated her for a Pulitzer Prize in feature writing for her work on the feature series “Generation Debt: The New Economics of Being Young.” In January 2005, the series became a biweekly column and Kamenetz became one of the youngest columnists in the paper’s history.
For more information about Project Dialogue, visit www.vanderbilt.edu/dialogue/.
Media contact: Princine Lewis, (615) 322-NEWS
Princine.l.lewis@vanderbilt.edu