I’m tired of petty politics, the lack of progress in Washington and college students getting the short end of the stick. Rising college tuition is leaving students with record-high student loan debt — on average, about $27,000 per person. The economic challenges faced by those with staggering loans are exacerbated by chronic unemployment, which remains at about 11 percent for young people. Many in Washington are ignoring these facts, which is why I decided to get involved with The Can Kicks Back, which is fact-based, bipartisan and pragmatic and rises above partisanship.
The student loan and unemployment numbers are alarming, but the most threatening number to our generation’s future is the true size of our national debt: $200 trillion. When politicians talk about our $17 trillion national debt, they are only referring to the amount of money our country has borrowed in the past — not where we are headed in the future. The true national debt — otherwise known as the “fiscal gap” — includes the present value of unfunded future obligations of programs such as Social Security and Medicare, today’s debt and the cost of interest payments. It is a tab so large that it is beyond our generation’s capacity to pay and a real threat to the issues we care about.
If Washington keeps kicking the can down the road by not addressing this problem, frankly, our generation will get screwed. Investments in our future — education, research, infrastructure — will hit their lowest relative level on record by 2023, but in reality, we need short-term investments now more than ever. By 2031, every penny of federal revenue will be just enough to cover so-called mandatory spending (primarily entitlements), meaning spending on everything else will be borrowed — for example, the entire Department of Defense. By 2033, the Social Security trust fund will run totally dry, and the program will only be able to pay a fraction of its benefits. In sum, if we don’t address this problem soon, we’ll be left with more debt, higher taxes, fewer benefits and a lower standard of living.
As campus leader of the UC Berkeley chapter of TCKB, I urge you to get involved in this fight to help bring attention to this issue and encourage actions to address this problem. Fortunately, at Berkeley, I’ve found many like-minded people and groups on both sides of the aisle that support this cause. I certainly believe that all Millennials should become engaged with The Can Kicks Back if they are interested in improving the financial stability of the United States.
I am excited to welcome the Generational Equity Tour to campus on Sept. 25 as part of TCKB’s campaign. I hope that you take some time to attend the event at 7 p.m. at the Toll Room in the Alumni House, which will include a presentation by Stanley Druckenmiller, a former chairman and president of Duquesne Capital. TCKB will also have a booth set up on campus during the day, and I encourage you to stop by, learn more and get involved. Every day that our country puts off tough choices, the financial burden being placed on our generation — and future generations — grows. We have the most at stake in the debate about the federal budget and growing national debt. It’s time for us to come together and fight for our future.
Anjanay Kumar is the campus leader of the UC Berkeley chapter of The Can Kicks Back