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Millennials In Crisis: Myth-Busting Millennial Debt Narratives, Stephanie Ben-Ishai, Tanner Stanley

Osgoode Hall Law Journal

Intense pop-cultural commentary on millennial finances and indebtedness perpetuates two conflicting narratives. One suggests that millennials are doomed and face higher debt levels than earlier generations, compounded by rising tuition costs, a lack of affordable housing, high costs of living, and an increasingly competitive job market. The contrary “millennial bootstrapping” narrative denies that millennials are more financially challenged than previous generations and argues that millennials need to pull themselves up their proverbial bootstraps and improve their work ethic to secure financial success. This article fact-checks these two narratives and fills a significant gap in the Canadian academic literature on the …