Lowrey notes that the debt-to-income ratio of youths have jumped in the last idecade, which she uses to argue that debt is really weighing young people down. But a debt-to-income ratio has two parts to it: debt and income. In our present situation, the income part of that equation is solely responsible for all of the upward pressure the ratio has been subjected to.[...]
According to the Census, the median income of those between 15 and 24 fell between 2007 and 2011 from $10,986 to $9,808, a 10.7% decline.