Kids These Days: Human Capital and the Making of Millennials

American millennials—roughly speaking, those born between 1980 and 2000—are arguably the nation’s best educated generation ever, but also one with the unfortunate distinction of having come of age just as the American dream was beginning to fade. Harris, a New Inquiry editor and millennial, contends that the rich human capital (as demonstrated by high GPAs, AP classes, enrichment courses, advanced degrees) his generation represents has been exploited by educational institutions and employers. What awaits millennials is precarious employment, student debt, and global warming, rather than the suburban McMansions and ever-increasing salaries their labor was supposed to secure. Harris makes powerful points: health insurance, pension plans, job security—the American laborer’s one-time birthrights—are no longer guaranteed. And yet throughout the book, Harris seems to assume that millennials are somehow entitled to a risk-free return on every human-capital investment they make. He focuses on how interns, student-athletes, and even grade-school students doing homework perform demanding but unpaid labor. Harris gives the off-putting impression that he expects nearly everything in life to be remunerative. Readers will come away agreeing that millennials have gotten a raw deal but unconvinced that they represent the new proletariat. Agent: Chris Parris-Lamb, Gernert Agency. (Nov.)