Wake up Young People!': CNBC's Santelli Delivers Stern Warning to those 27 and Under

Rick Santelli, the man commonly credited with starting the Tea Party movement, took time during CNBC’s “Santelli Exchange” to discuss his thoughts on the U.S. national debt, student loans, and the implications of the recent Greek and French elections.

“Sometimes the math just doesn’t add up,” Santelli said, “But even more than the math, the lesson from Europe and the elections this weekend is simple: nobody is going to volunteer for austerity.”

“Austerity,” of course, refers to the method of dealing with massive amounts of debt through harsh budget cuts and major slashes in public spending; it’s dealing with “past due bills,” as Santelli puts it.

“In this country, the minute you’re born, according to the debt clock, you have about a $50,000 dollar debt -- the minute you’re born,” Santelli continued.

“Now that’s per individual…if you’re a taxpayer, it’s closer to $138,000 per head. Now let’s look at what everybody wants to talk about,” Santelli said while circling the word “growth” on his dry erase board.

“Growth…is definitely something that’s in the windshield while austerity is in the rearview mirror.”

Watch Santelli discuss jobs, student loans, and austerity (via CNBC):

“The jobs outlook in the U.S. isn't very good,” Santelli said, “And it’s really about young people. Look at the unemployment rate among the young and you realize jobs are really most important to them. Why? Because young people, and as a voting bloc, all of you people out there -- about 27 or younger -- I just want you to understand they lay of the land: your generation, and the generations to follow you that aren't born yet, are paying for a meal that previous generations like mine have eaten. We’re sending you the check.”

“But, in order to send you the check, we have to make you a bit optimistic about the future and I find that rather difficult…when you have these numbers on your head,” the CNBC analyst said while circling the aforementioned $50,000 dollars of automatic debt everyone is born with, according to the debt clock.

Santelli went on to explain that the only way to keep younger generations optimistic in the face of rising healthcare and education costs (on top of the automatic debt) is to “reel” them into the political “ponzi scheme” of trying to pay for all the austerity of the past.

But how do you "reel in" the younger generations? Simple: promise to “take care of them” with things like student loan forgiveness so that, in return, they'll agree to subsidize, well, pretty much everything with the capital they generate.

“Wake up young people! It’s on your shoulders and you’re a big voting bloc. You can make change,” Santelli concluded.

Front page photo source: Mediaite