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Generations of young Hoosiers like me are on track to be poorer, pay more taxes, have worse job prospects and face higher housing costs, rents and prices than generations prior due to our nation’s rapidly approaching—and practically inevitable—debt crisis. Read that again. It’s a shocking revelation I’ve come to in putting together this column, and I’m simultaneously dizzied, numb and aghast.
We must turn this ship around and support Indiana’s 11 federal elected officials so they not only are useful in, but spearhead, the hard solutions-seeking that will be demanded in the 119th Congress, when the Trump tax cuts expire and major fiscal negotiations ignite in Washington. This work must commence immediately post-election.
My journey to this conclusion begins humbly. Like you and most Americans when polled, I know that the debt is a problem. As a young person, I also have the sense it will affect future generations disproportionately. However, in all honesty, I had no clue about the specifics: when a debt “crisis” might come, what it would look like, how it would materially affect me, and what can be done about it.
Inspired by a slew of recent national commentary, I set out to explore the issue. What does this debt mean to me and my peers?
Politely put, hitting the U.S. fiscal tipping point would leave no aspect of young people’s lives untouched.
Fiscal crisis would bring a wave of misfortune upon us. It would shrink our job opportunities; increase the cost of living, including for homeownership; jack up taxes; eat up disposable income; and make the luxuries many millennials and Gen Zers are used to—dining out, concerts, plane tickets—more rare.
On the local level, institutions would thin out. Education—that is, schools and teachers—would have fewer resources to bring up the next generation. Our roads would be left more in disrepair. And the amenities that make where we live attractive—green parks, holiday parades and public programming—all would be diminished.
On the federal level, the stakes are perhaps even higher. Our nation would have less for defense, a particularly alarming consequence given these volatile times. We would have less to invest in public health and infrastructure, as well as in the R&D that’s essential to keeping us on the cutting edge of technological advancement in our technological age.
In totality, it would be a major structural squeezing—one that, by the way, would hit those of least means the hardest. And according to many experts, with U.S. debt soon surpassing the size of the economy, fiscal spiral is not a matter of if, but when.
How did we get here? Rising health care costs, promises we’ve made to aging populations, and a tax code that consistently delivers in the red is a basic answer. Perhaps the more important answer, though, is that those we’ve sent to Washington have lacked the clear mandate to collectively crack this vexing problem. Next year provides a clear opening for a change.
For us, the time is now to get smart about this difficult topic and mobilize. Average citizens—separately and together—have incredible power to support and push Indiana’s 11 members of Congress in leading the hard but necessary decision-making this issue requires. We can drum up the political will our representatives need to deliver solutions.
My offer as a young, committed citizen with friends in the wings is to remain at the disposal of our leaders to help shine a path forward. It is our future. We can be the hope and offer the broad mandate that solving this intractable problem requires.•
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Gemelas is chief operating officer at Climate Solutions Fund, outstanding fellow of Mitch Daniels Leadership Foundation and a proud Greek-American. Send comments to ibjedit@ibj.com.
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