“All About The Money” booklet designed by Nicole Rusenko of The Heritage Foundation.
If you’re a millennial who recently returned to your college campus or started your first job, you probably haven’t paid much attention to the trillion-dollar spending measure Congress passed without much fanfare.
And why should you have? How does it affect your life? Spending decisions made in Washington can seem abstract and irrelevant for what matters to you.
But Congress’s spending decisions DO matter for today’s young people — perhaps more than for any previous generation. To help millennials answer the “Why does this matter for me?” question, Heritage has released “All About the Money,” a new guide specifically for college students and young professionals.
In it, we explain how the current spending culture in Washington affects millennials — their opportunities, their careers, and their future — and what we can do to change it. “All About the Money” is centered on preserving economic freedom to improve living standards and create opportunities for the future.
But right now millennials are at risk because of a slow economy and high levels of government debt that will continue to grow without reforms. Millennials born in 1994 will see their share of the federal debt grow sevenfold to $142,000 by the time they reach 45. That’s enough to buy an iPhone 6 Plus for 190 of your closest friends.
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And all that debt has to be paid somehow, mostly through higher taxes that will hit millennials—who already are struggling to find jobs—as they reach peak working age. This means lower economic growth, which is bad news for everyone.
But “All About the Money” lays out the solution: Reform the entitlement programs, which are the biggest contributors to the debt. Responsible reforms would reduce the debt and would preserve Social Security and other programs for those who need them most in the future. And cut spending to what’s essential.
The government has grown too big to be effective with more than 2,200 federal assistance programs on the books today. “All About the Money”shows why it is important for millennials to pay attention to the spending decisions coming out of Washington, which right now could leave them the most indebted generation of all time.
It also provides the solutions that can empower millennials to embrace the challenge to restore economic opportunity for their generation and for posterity. So have a look, inform yourself and take a step to preserve the American dream for millennials and all future generations.