You may have heard about a recent book called “Generation Debt:Why now is a terrible time to be young.” Author Anya Kamenetz paints a grim picture of how student debt and a poor job market have combined to make a hopeless future for today’s twentysomethings. She lists some disheartening economic research along with anecdotal stories from various high school and college grads who complain about how difficult it is to get a decent job or get out of debt.

Well, I can’t argue that Generation Y faces some big challenges. War, tough job market, rising tuition rates, student loan debt, credit card debt, Social Security is a mess, etc… But I’m having a real hard time swallowing this “poor me” mentality. Does anyone remember WWI and WWII? Vietnam? the Great Depression? You think things are tough now?

Normally I’m all in favor of defending the college-age crowd from critics. They are often the victims of undeserved criticism. But the twentysomethings in Kamenetz’s book just come across as a bunch of whiners who feel they are entitled to a high-paying job, new car and a trendy home right out of school. Kamenetz herself is an Ivy league grad with a major book deal but she moans about not having enough space at home to store all her wedding gifts. Oh, the horror!

I wish she had interviewed some of the same college students I talk to on campuses all around the country. They would have given her a completely different perspective of this generation. The students I’ve met are full of enthusiasm and eager to begin their new careers. Many of them have already started investing for their future. I’ve also been impressed by the many young entrepreneurs who started businesses while still in school or plan on doing so after graduation. Some of them are already making a solid profit but that’s not even the point. The important thing is that these students are not scared of chasing their dream even though they realize things may get really tough.

I meet students who are doing amazing internships with great companies. Did you know that more students are taking study abroad courses than ever before? You should hear how they rave about those programs. I could go on but you can see why I think that now is actually a great time to be young. Slate’s Daniel Gross wrote a very good story about this topic. Yeah, sure things could be better for Generation Y. But they could also be a helluva lot worse.