When people ask me about my goal and motive for organizing this campaign, I often recite the standard, “official” answer – something along the lines of we want to “educate, engage, and empower” college students on this important issue. Ok, that is the PR version of why we are in the game. What is the real reason? The real reason is that ultimately this issue is not a game, nor a competition; it is a necessary choice. As one university administrator at UT unabashedly puts it, “your generation is in a way deeper problem than this one issue alone – a product of my generation’s excesses. Why this issue?” Initially, I was baffled; why won’t you participate in a national movement to get college students excited and engaged about our future? This is one of those instances where I can picture Barney Stinson confidently asserts with a glowing face and a pair of glistening pupils, “challenge accepted!” But really though, the larger point remains: Why this issue? Why now?
The facts about our national debt are ubiquitously raised by politicians, policy wonks, and business leaders; and yet, little action is taken to seriously engage the generation that is affected by it the most: the millennial generation – us. Economists of all stripes have sounded the warning about the unsustainable nature of our national debt. There is a gamut of policy ideas to deal with this one issue, and even a broad consensus about a solution framework: some mix of spending cuts and tax increases. At its core, the issue is an arithmetic problem. We spend way more than what we take in. It is a question of priorities.
Unfortunately, the current state of politics has poisoned the millennial trust in national political leadership. We are tired of waiting for someone to act when the solutions are readily available and to some degree obvious. In the 1960s, conscientious students across the nation found ways to make their voices heard on issues of civil rights, education, and foreign affairs. And today, we are projecting a new youth movement, one that focuses on our collective future. We are forward-looking, optimistic, and wonderfully innovative. These attributes are who we are as a generation.
The truth is that I am frustrated by how little is done on this issue. Past examples include the Roman Empire, the Han dynasty, the Soviet Union and the British Empire in the 20th century: all collapsed when their treasuries were impoverished by public excesses and exorbitant debts. The U.S is not there yet, but that is the point. Let us choose a sounder course of actions while we still have the luxury to do so, as the trade-offs will become ever more severe as the debt clock continues to tick up ad infinitum.
The University of Texas at Austin’s official motto is WHAT STARTS HERE CHANGES THE WORLD. As a Longhorn, I am not only proud of our flagship university, which has inspired thousands of Texans and out-of-staters to excel and contribute to society, I am conscious and proud of who we are as a community of scholars, doers, leaders, and dreamers. Longhorns have gone on to lead Fortune 500 companies, research new energy solutions and cutting-edge medicine, work in the non-profit, become teachers, and function in many other disciplines that literally change the world. This university has been a constant source of inspiration for all of us. That is why my team and I choose change. As President Obama recently underscored in his recent State of the Union address, “believe it.”
Change starts somewhere. As a team of Longhorns, we have picked our departure point. Won’t you join us? Lady Margaret Thatcher had once remarked, “what we think, we become.” What do we envision to be the mark of our generational legacy in the year 2050?
My team is proud to partner with Up to Us in this endeavor to define our legacy. Two dozen schools. One voice. Together, let us reclaim our collective destiny through this movement of minds.