David M. Walker, CEO of the Comeback America Initiative, discusses the fiscal impact of raising the debt ceiling at the Dallas Business Club meeting in the Collins Executive Education Center on Tuesday. (Karissa Jobman/The Daily Campus )

With U.S. debt spiraling out of control and a bleak economic outlook for months to come, there has never been a time when the “youth are the future” cliché has held so true.

Tuesday’s lecture with Founder and CEO of The Comeback America Initiative, David Walker, discussed the current state of the United States economy and what it means for today’s young people and college students.

According to Walker, the median annual household income in this country is $50,000.

If the United States were an average household it would be spending $82,000 per year, and would have $126,000 of current debt.

This country’s financial mess is falling directly into the laps of today’s young people who will inherit these issues.

“The real threat is what the future will be like if we don’t start putting the nation’s finances in order,” Walker said.

The world for today’s young people is becoming increasingly competitive, according to Walker, and the focus needs to be on taking steps to impact how these issues are dealt with in

the future.

Walker advised college students to be “disproportionately active in representing your views to current and prospective elected officials” to ensure that these issues are addressed and dealt with in a manner that can help secure this generation’s future.

When it comes to pointing the finger, however, Walker said no particular political party or figure is at fault.

Government spending in 2011 has amounted to $4 billion more than the country takes in for revenue each day, and this debt has amounted over several decades under the watch of several presidents.

Now, the focus needs to be placed on action. Walker said that the U.S. is roughly two years away from where Greece was during its major financial collapse.

“We have more time, but not unlimited time,” he said.

This, according to Walker, is truly where young people come in.

First year MBA student at the Cox School of Business, Lewis Wang, views the economic situation in the United States through a special lens being a young person from China.

“As a foreign student and as a business student, this [information] gives me some idea about how to contribute to the country’s economy in the future,” Wang said, “I think it is my responsibility.”

Wang added that reversing the economic crisis in the United States would be mutually beneficial for China.

One of the major economic issues facing today’s youth is federal spending in terms of health care.

“We have way over promised in healthcare, and we are going to have to have an honest conversation with the American people at some point,” Walker said, who added that some day it will be today’s college students’ responsibility to have that conversation.

These issues can be overwhelming to the college students faced with them upon graduation, but Walker advises students to keep an optimistic outlook.

“In America, if you have a solid education, a positive attitude, strong work ethic, and solid more and ethical values,” Walker said. “You have unlimited potential.”

Recognizing this potential, according to Walker, is the key to young people changing these issues in the future, and subsequently changing the United States for the better.

David Walker is one of 50 national founders of No Labels, a national organization that emphasizes the value of progress over partisanship in order to ensure a future better than the past.

Video by Bridget Bennett.