Make no mistake, Gen Y + Gen X love debt. Their level of consumerism is un-relenting. If they want something now they buy it with no thought of the interest repayments or saving for a rainy day.

If there has been one stark contrast between previous generations and Gen Y/X it’s the refusal of younger folk to save and instead rack everything up on the Credit Card.

When Kevin Rudd talks about 300 billion dollars of national debt the reason he doesn’t take a hit in the polls is because our younger generation think he’s cool for spending so much. In fact for the average Gen Y’er 300 billion sounds so cool it might as well be a trillion because that’s how many megabites their new computer has.

So how do we tackle the great debt quandary and make sure our generation knows how destructive Rudd’s debt is to future generations who will suffer from higher interest rates, higher taxes and decreased services?

Talking about debt is one thing. Big whoop. Hasn’t worked to date. I think we need to go further and contextualize debt. EG, “Did you know that the interest bill alone on 300 Billion dollars debt per annum will be approximately 22 billion dollars. Even when times were good that’s an entire surplus. This means we will never have enough money to pay it back and will be from here on in always borrowing money to run the country."

The message has to be clear, debt isn’t cool, especially 300 billion dollars of it.

The fact is Australians need to have a frank and fearless conversation with us younger generation about debt, and what it means. I would encourage you leave comments here about ways we can change attitudes about debt.