Do Millennials really care about the national debt?

Guitar-player-turned-political-loudmouth, and former DuPage County resident Ted Nugent has made a hobby of writing for the conservative-leaning Washington Times in recent months, and a few weeks ago, he touched on a topic he thinks he still understands: young people.

The 62-year-old musician, generously deemed by the Times to be "an American rock 'n' roll, sporting and political activist icon" took a swing at my generation in late June, claiming my generation (the Millennials, Gen Y, whatever you call us) are not upset enough about being "royally abused" by the government.

"While I personally condemn violence of any kind, I am stunned that they are not participating more in the Tea Party, even rioting in the streets, clashing with the cops, conducting sit-ins at their colleges, interrupting political events and so on. Instead, the young people of this generation appear to be sound asleep, lethargic and seemingly unaware of how badly their generation is being royally abused by the deep-seated corruption and abuse of power in the government. They appear to be terminally stoned on apathy."

What Nugent doesn't seem to understand is that young people are not terribly torn up about the debt. Not because we think it does not exist -- we do, and we will likely never live like our parents because of it -- but because the debt has largely been accrued by giving one gift after another to affluent baby-boomers while repeatedly divesting from young people.

College tuition today costs twice what it did in the decade (the 1980's) in which we were born. The cost of living is continually rising, while wages for our generation are lower than our predecessors, despite being deemed "the most educated generation in American history." We are paying more and getting less. And by the looks of today's political discourse, it would appear that we are being ignored.

According to Pew Research, we are more likely than any living generation to identify ourselves as "liberal," we believe in shrinking the defense department, we want more domestic spending, and we rank "help[ing] others in need" in our top three priorities -- only behind being a "good parent" and "having a successful marriage." In fact, we put helping others above "having lots of free time," "having a high-paying career," and even "owning a home."

This data supports the title of "we generation," but clashes with the politics of the Nuge. From a column titled "Can't buy me love":

"I’ll vote for the gal or guy who says Washington is much too large, spends way too much money, taxes far too much and unfairly, who advocates for a balanced budget, has owned or worked for a successful company (not including law firms), and who believes health care and retirement is an individual’s responsibility."

Code for:

"I want to shrink federal government, slash federal spending, cut taxes (especially for wealthy people like me), balance the budget by cutting services, elect businessmen who help their cronies, and you know what? Poor people deserve less medical treatment than wealthy people like me. And let 'em die in poverty. That ought to teach them responsibility"

The reassuring part of this story is that young people don't give a damn what Ted Nugent says.

The sad part is that some young people don't give a damn what happens in government. That's the only thing Ted Nugent is right about.