I did a presentation last week for a group of young people, and I had to inform them that right now more than $600 billion in debt will be transferred to them unless this current generation does something about it.
I think the whole notion is that the group you're talking about, the group in their 50s and 60s, the sandwich generation, is increasingly stressed They're having to care for parents who are outliving their good health, and are having to be stretched to take care of them at the same time as they're paying higher costs to get their kids through school.
If you look at that generation, the demands upon them are extraordinary. People did a horrible job of creating appropriate expectations for this generation. We were supposed to be working three days a week. We were supposed to be retiring at 50. What has happened is that all their expectations and hopes have been confounded, and yet they have still tried to obtain them. They have sought ways, through debt, to live in houses they couldn't afford, to borrow to put kids in schools they couldn't really afford, and beyond it, because that was the way it was supposed to be. Now they've caught themselves not well prepared for retirement, having to care for their parents and having kids come back to live at home.
If you want to look at one generation that is really anxiety-prone and stretched, it's that generation that you've identified. And sure, government has the same kinds of challenges. How will it attend to the needs of this generation, which are exploding at the same time as the level of indebtedness is handicapping what it can do?