Today's young Americans, like no generation before, are beginning their working lives in a sea of debt. Faced with skyrocketing, education, and health insurance costs, many never climb out. Before we can discuss the conditions in which young people today will end their working lives we must address how they begin them. The progressive Drum Major Institute for Public Policy is leading that charge by urging policy-makers to talk to, not just about, young people and Social Security. If they did they might learn:

• GOING TO SCHOOL: The average college student graduates with nearly $19,000 of student loan debt according to Nellie Mae. For four in ten student borrowers, the debt level is "unmanageable," according to the Public Interest Research Group.

• PAYING BILLS: The average credit card debt among indebted young adults aged 25 to 34 was $4,088 in 2001, an increase of 55% from 1992 according to Demos.

• GETTING A JOB: Those under 25 years old accounted for 53% of all job losses in 2001, even though this group composes just 15% of the population, according to the National Center on Education and the Economy.

• MOVING OUT: Nearly six in ten 2004 college graduates planned to move back in with their parents according to a national survey conducted by MonsterTRAK, the leading global online careers website.

• SAVING UP: Nearly four in ten workers aged 25-34 have not managed to save at all for retirement, while nearly half say they are not currently saving according to 2004 Retirement Confidence Survey conducted by the Employee Benefit Research Institute.

• STAYING HEALTHY: A 20-year-old worker has a 3-in-10 chance of becoming disabled and unable to work before reaching retirement according to the AFL-CIO. Additionally, roughly one in three young adults are uninsured, the largest percentage of uninsured across any age group, according to the Institute of Medicine. Most privatization proposals drastically cut social security disability benefits, especially to younger workers, who have not yet paid much in to the system.

• WHAT "CRISIS"?: Among Americans aged 18-29, less than 1 in 5 see the current Social Security system as facing a "crisis" according to an ABC News/Washington Post poll conducted on Dec. 16-19, 2004.

In November’s presidential election, young people voted in historic numbers. The conversation about the future of Social Security presents an opportunity for Republicans and Democrats to capitalize on that civic momentum and engage young people in one of the most important debates of our lifetimes.

The non-profit, non-partisan Drum Major Institute for Public Policy is urging policy makers on the left and the right to listen to the concerns of young Americans about their future and the future of Social Security.

Our efforts to bring young Americans into the debate about the future of Social Security have already been reported on in the New York Times and the Village Voice.