IT'S THE ECONOMY, STUPID:

Straitened circumstances are becoming more familiar to those in their 20s and 30s as they try to get a foothold on the American Dream. Student loans, depressed wages, rising healthcare costs, and soaring housing prices are creating new economic realities. Sixty percent of young adults between 18 and 34 are struggling for financial independence, says Draut, now the director of the economic opportunity program at Demos, a think tank in New York. She is also the author of a new book, "Strapped: Why America's 20- and 30-Somethings Can't Get Ahead."

"What made the transition to adulthood somewhat less bumpy 30 years ago was that we had an economy that lifted all boats," she says. "When productivity was increasing, so were wages. We don't have that today. Wages certainly aren't keeping up with the cost of things like healthcare and housing."

Then there is the high cost of college. A bachelor's degree has become the equivalent of a high school diploma - essential for basic status in the middle class.

Michelle Wingate, who is in her mid-20s, holds an entry-level position at a public relations firm in Raleigh, N.C. She is paying off student loans. "When you graduate from college, you think, 'This is great. I'm going to be able to pay off all my debts,' " she says. "That's just not the case. My salary looks good from afar, but once I get my money I'm sending it directly to the people I owe it to. That creates a whole other problem. When you owe money, you can't save it."

Ms. Wingate's goal this year is to pay off credit cards. "After that I can knock down a big chunk of my student loans. Maybe three years from now I'll try to purchase a house."

She wishes credit cards were not so easy to obtain. "When you don't have any food in the refrigerator and a pre-approved credit card is on the counter, it's easy to open that card and activate it," she says. Draut wants legislation to stop what she sees as the most egregious lending practices of the credit card companies.

Very often, social observers say, young adults living on the financial edge view their situation as simply their own fault.

"We're so individualistic," says Deborah Thorne, a sociologist at Ohio University in Athens, Ohio. "We see this as an individual problem, and then we look to the individual for the solution. The fact is, these are national problems, and they require a national solution. But this is just not on the radar of politicians. It's not an issue with which they concern themselves. But it's the issue the American family is concerned with."

It's about time somebody said this: that being crushed by debt and low income (or no income) is about the economy and predatory lending practices, not personal financial incompetence.