A new analysis of data on the financial health of young people in the United States tells a frightening story about declining opportunity in America — a story of a generation saddled with crippling debt and forced to compete with older members of the workforce during a time of deep economic uncertainty.

The data was compiled by the Washington, DC-based think tank Young Invincibles.

Thanks to macroeconomic forces, like the Great Recession, and technological change, millennials are "the most educated, most diverse, and most indebted generation in America's history."

What's worse, little is being done on Capitol Hill — or in state capitols around the country — to secure their futures and the future of this country. Young Invincibles looked at a number of economic statistics for 25- to 34-year-olds in 2013 and compared them with the same age group in 1989.

"The declines across education levels were so steep that young people today that have a degree with debt earn roughly the same as young workers with no degree in the late 1980s," the report said.

Racial disparities, especially between white Americans and African-Americans, worsened dramatically. For example, white young adults accumulated four times as many assets and are twice as likely to own a home as African-Americans and Latinos, according to the report.

So it's not a pretty picture.