Millennials’ debt, GOP’s tax plan cast shadow over nation’s future
Millennials have been called entitled, narcissistic and coddled. But perhaps the defining characteristic of my generation is indebtedness.
Some 42 percent of Millennials, notably those from 18 to 29 years old, report some level of student loan debt. If the indebted individuals formed a political party, the membership would eclipse the percentage of Millennials who identify as Democrats or Republicans. What’s more, if the more than 31 million indebted Millennials formed a state, only California would have a larger population.
This enormous amount of debt shapes Millennials’ everyday decisions and jeopardizes the financial future of our generation and nation. Unfortunately, things may get even worse.
The tax plan passed by the House Republicans and proposed by the Senate GOP will exacerbate Millennials’ troubling financial outlook as well as deepen the economic inequality that separates older generations from young Americans.
Fear of debt distorts Millennials’ financial decisionmaking. Fewer than 33 percent of us own a credit card. As a result, Millennials will continue to struggle to amass the credit history needed to rent an apartment or, much further down the road, buy a house.
Staying at home increasingly is attractive as a result of our bleak financial picture. Compared with the percentage of Baby Boomers who lived with their parents at our age, Millennials are nearly twice as likely to still call our childhood home ... home. Returning to the nest, though, does offer some positives. Millennials are much more likely to be close to their parents than previous generations at the same age.
Low marriage and long-term partnership rates among Millennials may be tied to the romantic constraints of living under your parents’ roof. Just 55 percent of Millennials 25 to 34 years old live with a significant other; 80 percent of young folks did so in 1967.
So with homeownership down and marriage postponed, what is the status for the Millennial American Dream? Our American Dream is confined to what is possible with our American Debt.
Debt played a major role for 70 percent of Millennials when determining whether to attend college. For those who did opt to attend, debt makes heading for greener grass in other states a less feasible option.
Diminished mobility also plays a role in the labor market. High housing costs in the cities with the most job opportunities send Millennials conflicting signals: How do you weigh high rent against your dream job? Data from the Bureau of Labor and Statistics suggests that we are erring on the side of avoiding high rent and accepting any job rather than the one for which we have studied.
Though we are the most educated generation, we are also the most unemployed. Members of the Silent Generation (the generation before the Boomers) had half the unemployment currently experienced by Millennials. Without jobs and without a place of our own to call home, it looks as though our dream has been, at best, postponed and, at worst, diminished.
Sadly, political conditions do not bode well for righting the economic plight of Millennials. Evidenced by the tax plan passed by House Republicans, politicians seem to have ignored the fact that, according to the Economist, “Americans currently aged between 30 and 39 years of age are calculated to have amassed 46 percent less wealth on average in 2017 than the equivalent cohort had gathered in 2007.” The numbers are surely even bleaker for younger Americans. Compared with 24 other developed nations, the United States ranks 16th in the amount of intergenerational earnings mobility. The odds are simply not in our favor. Children born to the typical American family in 1950 had a 79 percent chance of making more money than their parents; 30 years later, that percentage dropped to 50. The American Dream is now the American flip: Tails you pass your parents, heads you stagnate.
If Republicans get their way, odds are the chances of young people achieving the American Dream will fall even further. Analysis of the House’s tax plan reveals that by 2021 the plan will result in higher taxes for households making between $10,000 and $30,000, a bracket disproportionately composed of younger Americans. Worse yet, the proposed cuts to the Affordable Care Act will add even more barriers to Millennials getting the affordable health care required to thrive.
The damage does not stop there. If passed, the plan would eliminate the student loan interest deduction that benefits millions of Millennials and can result in more than $600 in savings. Absent those savings, rent will feel steeper, bills more difficult to pay, and opportunities more difficult to seize.
Unfortunately and unsurprisingly, the GOP’s Senate tax plan isn’t any better. Like its counterpart in the House, the Senate proposal funds the present by leveraging the future. The plan preserves the mortgage interest deduction that incentivizes homeowners to hold onto their houses, which, in turn, diminishes the housing supply and drives rent even higher. It’s true that the Senate proposal does not eliminate the student loan interest deduction, but it’s disingenuous to call that a real victory for the Millennials who still will be drowning in debt if either bill reaches President Trump’s desk.
So call us whatever you want, but please recognize that our debt casts a long shadow over our future and the future of our nation. Without action, our indebtedness will worsen and, in turn, amplify the other conditions stifling our development. The last thing we need is a tax plan that continues to uplift older, wealthier Americans at the expense of young folks.