The entitlement generation gone broke

The just-out-of-college crowd has been dubbed the entitlement generation. People like me, 22 years old, equipped with the college degree we were told would grant us a good paying job, armed with the sense of right and wrong when it comes to the environment our baby boomer parents destroyed, and supplied with enough wit to know the right thing to say and when to say it. Yes, perhaps we think that we too should reap the benefits of our world as our parents have, but upon graduation with tens of thousands in debt, there's an unfortunate financial reality that awaits us instead. But, perhaps it's not that unfortunate. Collectively my generation might not make as much money as the generations before us did, but whether that's a choice or just the way of things, the generation now, Ode called this future population in the September issue of Ode, has also an ingrained notion that the we can indeed change the face of things. When everything is as low as it can go, there's no better place to push up from than the bottom, as noted in Ode's story on Failure in the October issue.

Just a day before the US Presidential Election Current.com, an Internet startup, which began in 2005, called my generation the Broke Generation. And, yes, that is true too. But our broke-ness is not a product of our own workings. For most recent college graduates we have only been able to vote in two elections. We have inherited the problems of the past, all the while believing our college degree was going to propel us into the future. Current.com faces this reality and opens up the gates to see the world for what it is, while informing its viewers of how it can be. The Emmy award-winning program, Current TV is produced by young people (as journalists, contributors and marketers), and it's for young people, though it's management does tout members such as Al Gore. It helps connect the dots of what's going on in their world, from their perspective, in their own voices, and isn't a product of the entitlement generation stereotype. And people are taking notice as their viewership attests. More than 51 million households tune in from the US and UK through distribution partners Comcast, Time Warner, DirecTV, Dish Network, Sky and Virgin Media Cable. Current TV shows the ability of that so-called entitlement generation to take the current situation by the reigns, understand it, and pull through it.

Without a steady paycheck, health insurance or a mortgage, young people still manage to pull through, together, working towards the best, rather than just hoping for it.

More info: www.current.com