LXXII. Growing Up to Be Broke

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Wherever you are, I imagine spring has sprung. Only two weeks ago, I was able to count five squirrel nests in the large tree that resides along the boundary of our property. Now, I can no longer see the nests. That’s how fast the leaves came and transformed things. Spring also means major league baseball has returned. I’ve been a St. Louis Cardinals fan since I was a kid. My father talked about seeing Stan the Man Musial and getting cheap bleacher seats at the long-gone Sportsman’s Park. For many of us, baseball is more than a sport. It’s an American tradition that speaks a universal language of time, teamwork, and perseverance.

My oldest is the 20-something facing the world of work, debt, and obligations. Listening to him and interacting with hundreds of young Americans in this age range led me to consider this piece for what they are facing. Between 1970 and 2025, the American economic landscape transformed dramatically, reshaping what it means for a young adult to "make it" in society. While we have experienced tremendous technological advances and economic growth, an underlying shift in the social contract occurred.

The emergence of predatory economics—a system where profits are increasingly extracted from workers and consumers to maximize corporate gain, while minimizing the equitable value and compensation.

In 1970, a worker's wages generally reflected their economic contribution. Unions were strong, and we were not yet to the necessity of a two-worker household. However, a dramatic shift began around 1979. Between 1979 and 2019, productivity grew 59.7 percent while median worker compensation grew just 15.8 percent—a staggering 43.9 percentage point gap. This intentional divergence represents the first indicator of predatory economics. Corporations began capturing more profit from workers' increased productivity without sharing the gains.

Let’s consider what a young adult from the 1970s dealt with vs. the costs of today. First, healthcare costs were lower, with minimal deductibles and more coverage. People did not consider healthcare the overarching issue it is today because they universally accepted it as a universal good.

That changed.

President Nixon's Health Maintenance Organization (HMO) Act of 1973 supported private-sector healthcare groups as an alternative to universal healthcare proposals, prioritizing profit-driven models over patient care. While initially intended to reduce costs, the law ultimately set the stage for rising healthcare expenses, narrower coverage, and systemic problems that persist today. Now, healthcare access frequently exceeds $3,000 for individuals, assuming a young person finds affordable health insurance on their own or through employment.

As you would think, our system does not do well in comparison to other advanced nations. A Commonwealth Fund analysis ranked 11 high-income countries' healthcare systems, with Norway, the Netherlands, and Australia leading. The United States ranked last overall despite spending far more of its GDP on healthcare. The top-performing countries share critical features lacking in America: universal coverage without cost barriers, strong primary care systems, reduced administrative burdens, and robust social services, all features now on the back of young Americans.

Healthcare isn’t the only problem. The median home price increased from $17,000 in 1970 to approximately $159,200 in 2025. Financing such a purchase not only costs more but has become more complex, with mortgage products designed to extract maximum profit rather than facilitate sustainable homeownership.

Car insurance also exemplifies another particularly predatory evolution. Recent data shows a 21 percent year-over-year increase as of March 2024, far outpacing both wage growth and general inflation. Simultaneously, coverage quality frequently declined, with more exclusions and limitations. Insurance has transformed from a risk-pooling mechanism into a profit-maximization system. This shift birthed an entire litigation industry around bad faith insurance practices—a concept that barely existed in 1970 but became widespread by the 1980s. By 2012, at least 46 states recognized third-party bad faith as an independent tort, reflecting the widespread practice of improper claim denials.

The "delay, deny, defend" strategy employed by many insurers exemplifies predatory economics in action. Insurance companies systemically deny valid claims, then leverage their financial resources to outlast policyholders in litigation. This practice grew so common that legal scholars now recommend reforms including enhanced transparency and stronger government regulation.

The telecommunications industry underwent a similar transformation. From AT&T's monopoly breakup in 1982 to today's merged landscape of a few dominant providers, the communication sector shifted from a regulated utility model to a profit-maximizing industry. While service and connectivity options expanded, affordability declined. Just as one can hardly imagine a youth of 1970 without a telephone in the house, it seems equally far-fetched to imagine any young American of today without a phone in their purse or pocket. Lack of high-speed internet and a smartphone will quickly leave today's 24-year-old behind.

As predatory economics expanded, so did the legal industry—both as a response and enabler. The number of lawyers exploded from 326,000 in 1970 to 574,000 by 1980—a staggering 76 percent increase in just one decade. By 2023, America had over 1.3 million attorneys.

This growth facilitated both consumer protection and predation. While many lawyers fight against exploitative practices (and it may be lawyers that save America), others take part in them. The rise of firms that convert minor incidents into major claims has contributed to insurance inflation, which companies then used to justify premium increases. This cycle perpetuates the predatory nature of the system. While my father deemed it sinful to so readily sue others, it is almost unavoidable in today’s market. My oldest son was involved in a fender bender that had no observed injuries yet ended up being a shakedown for close to $100,000 through insurance.

Finally, education has become a cash cow for lenders. In 1970, the average annual cost of attending a public university was approximately $1,410 (around $9,000 in today’s dollars), and most students could cover these expenses without taking on significant debt by working part-time or during the summer. By contrast, in 2025, students face an average annual cost of $38,270 for public universities, often requiring loans; the average borrower now graduates with $35,207 in student loan debt, reflecting the dramatic rise in education costs and reliance on borrowing to fund higher education.

We want a populace that seeks more education and skills, makes advancements, and gives back, but we’ve made it easy for young Americans to get into deep debt very early to get there.

That’s predatory.

What makes these trends most damning is the current purposeful destruction of public jobs and services.

That will only make things worse.

The predation will continue until we move beyond fake slogans and really work to make American great again:

The predatory economics that emerged between 1970 and 2025 was not inevitable. It wasn’t because of DEI, wasn’t caused by migrants or gays, and wasn’t from too little or too much religion. It resulted from purposeful policy choices that favored profit first and the needs of the citizens second.

By recognizing this history, we can chart the correct path forward—one where economic growth benefits everyone, not just those positioned to extract value from others. For today's 24-year-olds, this isn't just about fairness but about creating an economy that works as well for them as it did for their grandparents in 1970.

Not a single act of this administration has addressed any of this, nor will the private market voluntarily promote more fair arrangements over the huge profit margins now enjoyed.

The predatory economics that have shaped America are a result of our complacency and our choices.

Unless we get better at picking our leaders and protecting good policies, we doom this generation of 24-year-olds to debt and disappointment.

For those of you on the fence about the effectiveness of the chosen leadership in this administration, you would do yourself a favor by reading this piece.

While the focus of this story has been on the ineptness of sharing what is clearly sensitive data on an American military mission, I am more focused on what the comments say about the people in the chat. First, while we typically ask God to protect and bless our troops (President Biden did this consistently), the cavalier use of the term in the chat gives me pause for invoking God when it comes to an operation to kill unseen individuals. I would portend that if God is real, he would not use or condone the collateral loss of innocent civilians with a missile strike.

Secondly, what I find remarkable is while planning for a military attack, they are invoking negative comments toward European allies and former President Biden. As many of us have long known, everything from this administration is window dressing to keep one man happy; hence, an operation that is supposed to protect shipping lanes for trade must also invoke a few jabs toward the current president’s supposed enemies.

I would proffer that most military operations by any prior administration, whether right or wrong, have been much more professional and focused. When the job involves killing, there’s no time for political points and pettiness.

Read it for yourself.

From a conservation and public service leadership point of view, this is an abhorrence of what has made America great. If there is something to be proud of, it’s that the world comes to see the beauty of America’s national parks, saved only by the foresight of a few men and women at the beginning of the 20th century.

The Park Service is an excellent indicator of what the destruction of public services will cause. To manage such an immense amount of land for the benefit of generations of Americans, to ensure a diversity of species on our shared planet; this takes a lot of planning and personnel. It’s the type of investment that pays forward. It’s putting into practice our mandate to be stewards of the Earth.

This is all lost if you view the world only as immediate and transactional.

We each only have a small bit of time here, but we can do a lot of damage if we think that time is ours and ours alone.

Keep talking, encouraging, and acting. It is making a difference. Freedom is not free and it will evaporate if no one is listening, watching, and acting.

Be a good human and make good trouble.