Gen F'd?: How Young Australians Can Reclaim Their Uncertain Futures

by Alison Pennington

In Gen F'd? economist Alison Pennington shows how the most educated generation in Australia’s history stands to be the first generation worse off than their parents, and gives young people the tools to create the change we need. This is the fifth book in The Crikey Read series from Crikey and Hardie Grant Books.
 
Young people today are digital natives, encouraged to market their own uniqueness and success online, amid out-dated advice from parents and work hard and you’ll get ahead. But Australia's celebrated 'fair go' has disintegrated, with millions of young people stuck on the rat-wheel of insecure work and crammed into share houses paying off boomers’ mortgages.
 
Against the backdrop of global warming and pandemic, young people have inherited a dysfunctional economy that consumes their futures. Gen F'd? plots a path forward for Australians to reactivate our democracy and create a new economy that provides hope and opportunity for all. 
 
From Crikey and Hardie Grant Books, The Crikey Read is a series that brings an unflinching and truly independent eye to the issues of the day in Australia and the world.

Genres: Nonfiction

Kindle Edition

Published March 8, 2023

Reviews

[Bec · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an incredibly informative, but a little stale nonfiction book about the state of the Australian economy and the impacts on younger generations. Perhaps it was just because it was also super depressing to read, knowing that the state of distress when considering things like buying a house is rooted in a lot of reality and decisions made by generations that benefited.

Pick this up if you are a young Australian who wants to understand why everything is currently how it is. Also, pick this up if you are an older Australian who doesn't want to believe that it is currently ridiculously hard to get by for younger generations and it's because of decisions past. Because the facts are in this book.

[Nellie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book succinctly shares why so many of us in society are in our current predicaments. While it is confronting and anger-inducing to read the impact of capitalism and neoliberalism, this book clearly explains where we have gone wrong. The proposals of amendments to current political, business and economic frameworks to ensure a more just, equitable and liveable future for one and all, sound plausible and necessary to me. “You may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one…”

[Lynette A Harlow · Rating 5 out of 5]

Exciting chase through the challenges facing not just young people but the great majority of us south of the income and wealth divide

After careful inspection of the despairing prospect of finding secure employment and housing we are soon into deep neoliberal country land picking up the pre-Gen F'ds along the way. Alison refreshes the importance of class and the need to organise around felt community wherever we may find it. The language and fact are in cruise control helping us to see better where we are and what a Fair Go really is for all of us. A short and exciting ride.

[Steve · Rating 5 out of 5]

Alison Pennington articulates the predicament many young Australians face today, regardless of education. The chapter ‘The End of Good Jobs’ was particularly eye-opening. Depressing facts of neoliberalism aside, what makes this book special is the tools the author/economist suggests we should utilise in order to unF’k this Generation.

This book may be a short swim in the corrupt pool of shitty policies. But you will find that the water sure runs deep.

"Look above you, faces pier downwards
They’re rich and revealing aplenty.
Will they send you a rope or a diver?
A knife or a bottle of air?"
- ‘The Big Dive’ by Tall Dwarfs

[Sue · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Must Read Book for all Australians!

This is the best book I have ever read! It provides the most intelligent, informative and evidenced exploration for the current crisis facing Western Democracies and the clearest roadmap to solving the crisis. The reminder of why Australia has long been the land of the “fair go “ is also a clarion call warning how far we have been dragged into the pit by the profit above all faction. If Australia is to survive as a nation for all, and not just the wealthy, we need to return to the Social Democratic contract between people and government which solved similar problems during the Depression and Post World War Two!

[Nat · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5⭐️

Not my usual non-fiction read but an important book nonetheless.

Well researched and factual, I learnt a lot about social movements, neoliberalism, and what we have lost as a society.