Deal of the century?

There's been a great deal of talk on the housing crisis for the greater part of this year. The stories of foreclosed homes seems to dominate the airwaves. Though, as people now start to cash their federal injection checks, I've run across a new concern that makes me think this issue will last much longer than a business quarter.

The Future Majority Blog reports that the upcoming generation's greatest concern is that they will be the first generation to not exceed the prosperity of their parents (in what I would imagine is on record post-1930s depression). Holding greater debt after college, coupled with the difficulty in finding affordable housing, this generation currently transitioning from college to the real world gets a real awakening when realizing that the McMansions their parents built could hold seven of their friends apartments.

Last week, I attended the second half of the Better Deal Conference in washington, listening to the many issues that young advocates face. There is a push for something new--a new "New deal," if you will--and the consensus in the large ballroom at the Liaison Hotel sounded the concern of this generation lost in the focus on middle class issues by presidential campaigners in all camps.

I'm not sure what solutions can turn around this heavy storm that seems to sit on the horizon of our future. Indeed, there needs to be a great desire by older generations to reach out to those who will ultimately be paying the social security for the babybomers who are now just starting to retire, and look as though they will live longer than any generation previously.

what needs to happen is that we must all come together--across generational lines--to secure the future of our democracy. At the conference, I was concerned that when they said their target audience stopped at age 35, what would people like myself do next year when we reached 36?

The Future Majority is not an exclusive club. We're all in this sojourn together, and we all need to work together to find real solutions. It's not a new deal for the newest generation. But, it's a new deal for all americans.