Generation on Hold: Coming of Age in the Late Twentieth Century

Anne Savoie is a youth counsellor in Anjou, Quebec.

The premise of this book is that today’s youth have been moulded by
North American capitalism in the 1990s into becoming consumers, not
active participants in society. The authors believe that crime and
violence are inevitable consequences of the disenfranchisement of the
younger generation. Their book shows how youths are streamed by the job
market into low-paying, dead-end jobs. Conspicuously absent from their
argument is the fact that other groups (notably women and immigrants)
are affected by the same stresses that are depriving youth of a viable
future. And although Generation on Hold provides some interesting
theories and useful statistics, it lacks a crucial element: the voices
of the youths themselves.