The American Association of Young People Blog

another shitty day in young america

anya kamentz of generation debt-how this title gets longer and longer when i see it in the press (although it really is an important book) took a trip upstate ny recently. she goes on to say in the huffington post or reposted in the huffington post that a deli sandwhich like the canary in the mine predicts usa based riots b/c of rising costs of food and that citizens of foreign nations already riot in the streets. her detractors, the comments from the post, poke at obesity issues (very real- heart disease is the number one killer amongst rich geezers- and a belt expanding problem amongst american youth. anya serenely tells us what’s she’s going to do-all great. and then asks us what we (the reader will do?) again. but seriously. rumor has it anya didn’t graduate with any debt from yale. but seriously kids that’s bad ass and we should applaud her for being one of the lucky ones. she could be manging or writing about stock picks in some crappy stock periodical that obviously didn’t do shit for bear sterns or lehman brothers. anya keep it up. awesome! anya thank you for taking a stand and nudging the sleeping giant that 100m young americans represent.

but anya’s dectractors are not entirely off base in the huffington post comments. young americans can’t blame absentee parents or market conditions are lack of public education or rich geezers but themselves. as thomas friedman said we are the quiet generation, going about engagement on our own. connected only socially and barely civicly in these weak covalent bonds that do nothing but the occasional 4 year all time voter turn out! slap slap slap.

let’s engage fiscally! like a costco or home shopping network that says hey folks we have 11m members, is that the best you can sell an ipod for? a car? a house? health insurance? 4 year degree? cuz if it is we’re taking our young ass to your competitor and they’ll get a focused piece of 3 trillion in annual spending while you get the unconnected left overs. those companies don’t mind discounting or throwing cash at us cuz they make it up in volume!

why don’t we all get together and pool our financial spending power and ask the cute little store owner in upsate newyork for a 10-20% discount b/c we belong to the American Association of Young People. and we’ll tell other American Association of Young People members about her little shop and that will mean 11m American Association of Young People members know that when they are in upstate new york to stretch their mental and physical limits rock climbing they’ll get a discount at the little deli (which we should always buy local and according to doug on weeds avoid completely nasty chain restaurants!) now how about the little hotel or chain anya spent the night or weekend? 20% off anyone. westin, hampton, choice, marriott they give other groups discounts, why not us?

so while we are budgeting, riding bikes, getting hand crank radios b/c evidently the rice was too expensive and we can’t pay the electric bill to charge our thinnovation apple air laptops to charge our ipods we need to aggregate. like a buyer at costco, or walmart or sam’s club and say hey nation of manufacturers, grocery stores, cinemas, clothing stores, gas companies give us a &^$&^%**()_&)(_T(*(* break or we are taking our 3 trillion in annual spending to other shareholders!!!

they’ll get it. then you’ll get it. deeper savings, your “young buck” strecthed farther. do you need it. um hell yes you need it. 225k jobs just got cut this quarter. the world is in recession. 100 year old banks in london fold, american banks are on their knees caught with their pants down asking foreign governments for money to pay their bills. gas is at 100+ dollars a barrel. you have no insurance. you have a job that can be immediately outsourced or automated. and you can’t take road trips to rock climb in upstate new york.

churchill (winston) said a fanatic is someone who talks incessently and doesn’t change the subject. it’s not going to get any prettier for awhile kids. let’s join together and make our financial voice heard. haven’t the boomers been in charge long enough? given you irag, depleted oceans, melting ice caps, broken social security (they sure as hell wont’ change it now gawd dammit they’re about to retire!) ridiculous labor laws, broken homes, and 7 trillion in debt.

here’s a little cow poetry that says it best.

rolling green pastures

ice cold streams.

rolling green pastures.

blue cold streams.

damn the electric fence.

damn the electric fence.

join the American Association of Young People swarm conference washington dc aug 22-24.

Tags: aarp, aayp, anya kamenetz, boomers, budgets, business, career, cash, economics, economy, finance, financial education, gas, generational disparity, global, healthcare, housing, job loss, jobs, matt murray, Money, oil, options, poverty, real estate crash, saving, sub-prime, youth