Occupy Wall Street: Gen Y Finally Gets Angry?

With Mayor Bloomberg backing off on threats to clear Zuccotti park for cleaning and protests spreading as far as Tampa, London and suburban Walnut Creek, California, it looks like the Occupy Wall Street protests are set to continue for awhile. And according to Generation Debt author Anya Kamenetz, when it comes to young people's lives, that's a reason to celebrate.

In a HuffPost piece entitled "Generation Debt at the Barricades," Kamenetz argues that Occupy Wall Street is a manifestation of young people finally getting fed up with the unsustainable combination of huge student loan debt and shrinking job opportunities the system created by older generations has offered them:

Occupy Wall Street is Generation Debt at the barricades, on blogs, Twitter and Tumblr, expressing their deep sense of betrayal. At the heart of that betrayal, the one issue that comes up over and over again is student debt.

College is the centerpiece of the American dream. We tell our children that if you have both merit and gumption you'll be handed the chance to prove yourself on a level playing field, with both financial and personal rewards. And so it's our nation's college students -- the ones with an average age of 26, the ones who are burning through their youth with a cycle of part-time jobs and part-time classes -- who are now raising their voices to tell us that the dream has gone hollow.

• 70 percent of students say the economy has had a negative impact in some way on their job prospects after college.
• 86 percent of graduates say a four-year degree is not giving them the leg up that they need in order to find a job in the current market
• 62 percent of young people the agency spoke to believe that the overall financial system has created a mountain of debt for their generation to inherit.
• Half believe that the U.S. financial system serves only the rich and has eroded the middle class.
• When asked about their feelings about the protests, 20 percent of young people said that they're actually outraged, 37 percent said they're at least angry, and only 24 percent felt neutral about them.

I think in the past two election cycles we've seen a definitive uptick in youth participation and awareness with regards to politics. I think that's one of the reasons why you saw a lot of college students getting involved with the last election, and you can probably look to them as playing a large part in helping to spread the grassroots nature of the wave President Obama rode into the office.

I think these protests have really struck a chord for them. I don't see them necessarily giving up the fight until there is some kind of revision of the existing laws with regards to college tuition and reimbursement. I think there will be some kind of movement or traction that takes into account students' grievances and relieves the pressure, so to speak.

Fuller agrees that the experience of the Occupy Wall Street protests is sparking a new, more combative political stance among many young people:

This isn't a generation like a Gen X where we were very rebellious of authority and of our parents. Working together and listening to your parents and respecting that discipline is definitely part of who Gen Y are. So for them to be able to come out against authority, definitely is establishing them as wanting to take action.

Read More on BNET:

• Why Occupy Wall Street Has Already Won
• Occupy Wall Street: The 10 Best 'We Are the 99%' Messages
• The Kids Are Risk Averse: Will the Recession Scar Gen Y?
• Is College a Bad Deal? More Than Half of Americans Say Yes