What people are saying about Strapped: "It's no time to be 21, and we have Tamara Draut to thank for describing to us, in precise detail, the forces arrayed against young people-and what can be done to alleviate the situation." - Thomas Frank, author of What's the Matter With Kansas?

Why is growing up so hard -- and terrifically expensive -- to do these days, and what can we do about it?

Strapped offers a groundbreaking look at the new obstacle course facing young adults-the under 35 crowd-as they try to build careers, buy homes and start families. As Tamara Draut explains, getting ahead is getting harder. A college degree is the new high school diploma - but it now costs a fortune to get that degree and students graduate with crippling debts. Good jobs are scarcer thanks to stagnant wages and disappearing benefits. And, the cost of everything - starter homes, health coverage, childcare - keeps going up and up. Budding families, even those with two incomes, struggle to pay the bills, while Visa and Mastercard have become the new safety net. Young adults are starting out behind the financial eight ball-borrowing their way into adulthood and wondering whatever happened to the American Dream.

Is this the way things have to be? Not at all, argues Tamara Draut, a leading young commentator and a fresh voice for change. She shows how the obstacle course bedeviling young adults didn't just happen - it was allowed to happen by a generation of leaders more interested in serving wealthy interests than in investing in the nation's future. Strapped brims with ideas for a new kind of America where every young person can go to college, buy a home, and start a family.

Strapped will help jumpstart a national conversation about where the country is failing-and how we can make it right again.