Gennady Kolker

Gennady Kolker is the internet & media relations associate at Demos: Ideas & Action, a think tank based in New York City. He supports a wide range of media relations and online engagement efforts, including coordination of several key elements of the Demos Books Project. Gennady also is content editor for Demos.org and affiliated Demos websites. Prior to working at Demos, Gennady held internships in Demos’ Economic Opportunity Program as well as at the Brennan Center for Justice, and in the office of then Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton. He graduated from New York University (NYU) Magna Cum Laude with a degree in political science, and concentrations in economics, media and legal studies. Gennady was born in the former Soviet Union, in what is hard money lenders now Ukraine, but grew up in the U.S. His past, together with a long and tumultuous journey to the U.S., instilled in him a serious understanding for history, and public policy in particular. In his free time, Gennady likes to dabble in technology and new media, and prefers to stay well informed. He closely follows current events, and is an avid reader with particular interests in news magazines, nonfiction and dystopian political satires. Gennady is also video camera stabilizer a devoted film fan, enjoys playing the guitar, and occasionally does a little backpacking. He wrote about The Squeeze is On: Young People and the Recession. This isn’t news to the 7.3 million of young people (under the age of 35) who now navigate through the toughest economic maze since the Great Depression: issue job insecurity, fast increases in the cost of higher education, health care and important livings expenses, sky-rocketing student loan and credit card debt and minimal savings to cushion the blow. Moreover, government policy did not microdermabrasion machines keep pace, branding this generation of young people with the suspicious variation of being the first generation in a century unlikely to end up better off than their parents. In the second quarter of 2009, young workers under the age of 25 had an underemployment rate of 31.9%–the count of people who’ve been laid off and are looking for work with those who have given up or resorted to part-time jobs. In 1970, 14 percent of full-time college students worked more than part time (20 hours per week or more). More than 30 years later, that percentage had doubled; an astounding 60% of part-time metal detector community college students work more than 20 hours per week. 67% of graduating students at four-year institutions left college with debt. In 2008, the average debt of students graduating with loans was $23,200, an increase of 24 percent over 2004 when student debt averaged $18,650. Even if the tough economy would end tomorrow, young people continue to face economic road blocks. Recent legislation to end deceptive and abusive credit card procedures, proposals to reform health care and spend money on higher education are substantial steps toward reform, but on their own remain insufficient to ensure larger economic security for young people. To that particular end, Demos, together with over 30 partners, will host its second-annual A Better Deal Conference this week in Washington DC, to bring together politically-engaged young adults, such as community organizers, young elected officials, policy advocates, get-out-the-vote volunteers among others in a collective effort to increase this tankless water heaters generation’s financial crisis to the national agenda, to offer policy substance to sustain reform momentum, and to forge partnerships for future reform efforts. Basically, a comprehensive policy agenda is significantly needed to ensure that today’s young people are well-positioned to go in the middle-class–as their parents did a generation ago–for our sake and the future of our economy.