"Sometime the math just doesn't add up" is how CNBC's Rick Santelli begins what should become must-watch viewing for the youth of America as he tries to "Wake Up Young People" to the incredible realities of the level of debt encumbrance they are being born with. The lessons we are learning from our European brothers is that no-one is going to volunteer for austerity and fundamentally, to Rick, austerity is about 'past due bills'. From birth (where the average soon-to-be-taxpayer is already encumbered by $138k) to the future (looking for growth through capital attainment and job creation), Santelli starkly looks into camera, addressing the under-27-year-old demographic and tells them straight "you are paying for a meal that previous generations have eaten". The worrying point is that in order for the youth not to revolt against this 'unfairness' they need optimism and what appears to be occurring now is a fading of that generational optimism (except for CEOs whose last name begin with Z) as joblessness, and the costs of college and healthcare anchor our traditionally upwardly mobile bias.
So how do 'we' hook the younger generations in? Student loan forgiveness? But where's that money going to come from? ...and so the ponzi feeds on itself once again. The government is promising to take care of you when it has already shown that we couldn't take care of the generations of the past. Quite a dismal picture indeed.