by Tamara Draut
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Product Description
Drowning in student loans? Can’t afford to get married, buy a home, have children? Up to your ears in credit card debt? At last, a book for the under-35 generation that explains why it’s not their fault, and what can be done about it.
Strapped offers a groundbreaking look at the new obstacle course facing young adults. Getting ahead, argues commentator and policy maven Tamara Draut, is getting harder. A college degree is the new high school diploma–and costs a fortune to obtain. Good jobs are scarcer thanks to stagnant wages and disappearing benefits. And, the cost of everything–starter homes, health coverage, child care–keeps going up. Witty and wise, Strapped brims with ideas for fashioning a new kind of America in which every young person can go to college, buy a home, and start a family. The future starts here.
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Average Customer Review:
0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
 Personally horrorifying, in a good way, 2008-07-02
The book's thesis is not that younger generations are lazier and solely themselves to blame, but that systematic problems from sources far bigger than individuals are ALSO (but not only) to blame. Avoiding the usual binary (1-or-the-other) logic, the combination of individual and systematic issues creates a more indebted generation. The systems increasing our debt include the new ecnonomy (temp and consultant positions versus actual full-time positions, ever more stingy benefits, companies firing-and-hiring more aggressively to lower payroll expenditures), government (Reaganites' purposeful civic disengagement, conservatives dismantling government to chase free market profit, ever-more eliminating social-related government programs), social (friends use credit cards, consumer culture's "lifestyle" argument, mass media's materialistic bombardment), and financial (speculation, private investments, growing accceptance of debt-for-diploma). This argument against the conventional, conservative "it's your own fault, so get with the program" notion for why we've more debt makes this book an anti-conventional, firebrand way to think of the problem of the US's negative (that's right, credit is big) national savings rate. The book's using testimonials caused me to have severe doubts about my own secuity: financial, emotional, psychological, and political. Stories of not "them" but "us" create a uniquely personal anxiety few books cause within me. The book's targeting the reader personally, not just theoretically, makes this book more horrifying than any I've read in years.
0 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
It's Dead On, 2008-05-15
This book is dead on about all my views of this new generation we are all coping with it. Tamara hits on the fact that the kids of today would love to provide as our parents did, but are unable to due to everything being priced out of reach or the government giving little to no help for the working lower middle class.
I highly recommend this book if you're having doubts about your abilities to provide for your future, or now. You'll learn that it's not just you and your lack of self discipline to save. Trust me. Read it. It's worth it.
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
 Great book for getting you to think about the problems facing our generation!, 2008-04-28
The author built a good case that young people are not as well off economically as previous generations, which most people in the GenX/Millenial age group sense intuitively. I don't agree with what the author defines as the causes and solutions of the problems, but she definitely makes the case that these problems exist and that they need to be addressed. If you would like more detail as to what her causes and solutions are, I recommend reading through all the other reviews as they are on point in the praise and criticisms.
I recommend this book as a great read because it will get people our age to think about the problem. Unlike Ms. Draut, I am certain that we will all come to different conclusions as to what caused the problems and how to fix them, but it is vitally important that the problem be recognized and addressed. Don't fall into the Draut trap of totally absolving yourself of personal responsibility though. I have student loans and credit card debt like many young people and it weighs on me. I had to learn that being middle class is something you acquire, it is not a birthright (unless you have a generous trust fund). To that end I have read financial books, instituted a plan for paying down debt and I am happy to say that I am 1/2 of the way through paying off my credit card debt and will finish paying that within a year (knock on wood!).
1 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
Hard Times are here...., 2008-04-18
...and harder times, they are a-comin'. Tamara Draut writes what is true. My generation (Gen X) is in deep trouble. No matter if we "go by the playbook", as she writes, no matter what steps we take, we'll still end up bilked and impoverished because of a government that only cares about lining the pockets of the super-rich few. I'm only in my mid-20s, and I've been a "bouncer", and "tempster", and am now a "juggler", earning barely enough to survive in a job with long hours, but at least I don't have to worry about being pink-slipped any day like in others; I both work for and take 1-2 classes at the local community college, and it's the absolute best out there that I can do. Draut underlines the fact we are not lazy and do not have bad work ethics; the opportunities just aren't there any more. How much worse does it have to get before it gets better?
1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
 Poor RoI on this book, cut your losses and read something else, 2008-04-14
I started to read this book and found it frustrating. The author seemed to believe that people can make poor life choices and should not have to deal with the consequences of their actions. I'm in my late 20s and yes times can be tight and student loans suck, but I made my choices and will deal with them. Based on the 1/3 of the book I read, potential readers are better off reading about how to manage their money, and not read about people whining about not having any. I can't remember who said it, but one of the best qoutes about money is "It's not how much you make, but what you do with how much you make."
I would suggest reading "The automatic Millionare" for a good how-to book on finance that anyone can understand. Or, for a good philosophical prospective, yet easy read try "Rich Dad, Poor Dad." If you become a finance dork, like me, try the classic "Intelligent Investor" by Graham (it worked for Warren Buffet).
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