Description of how to use calculator to determine debt

Under ten years old, the current generation of children have never lived in a pre-9/11 world or used a card catalog and pay phone. Likely, they will never write checks or perceive a college education as unattainable.  What will this mean for their perception of personal debt?

Debt has been incredibly available to the young workforce. Generation X was not deluged with cell phone or pager bills since age fourteen, credit card offers starting at age sixteen, nor the status quo of maintaining an adult lifestyle through college.

With student loan payments, overpriced mortgages, and little savings, these so-called slackers are burdened by debt, their children's failing schools, and anomie at their workplace.

The prospect of vacant retirement accounts, bankrupt Social Security, devalued housing prices, and caring for their aging parents doesn't produce a feeling of hope and love for this once-radical generation.

How do the Traditionalists / Greatest Generation (born before 1945) view the current credit crisis?

Skyrocketing health care costs have bankrupted many careful planners. Once retired, many are returning to the workforce after extreme losses in savings and investment.