Pew Research Center has released data suggesting an age gap in optimism for the future of American young adults.
When asked if their children will be better off or worse off than they are, less than half of U.S. parents say “better off” and a full 25 percent say “worse off.” This is the most pessimistic we’ve seen parents in 16 years.
But their kids are more optimistic than anyone else, with 85% saying that they expect that their financial situation will improve next year:
Of course these data aren’t entirely compatible, but it’s an interesting comparison nonetheless. The idealism of youth? The pessimism that comes with bad backs and mortgage payments? The possibility that 18-29-year-olds have nowhere to go but up?
Economix, via Karl Bakeman.
Lisa Wade, PhD is an Associate Professor at Tulane University. She is the author of American Hookup, a book about college sexual culture; a textbook about gender; and a forthcoming introductory text: Terrible Magnificent Sociology. You can follow her on Twitter and Instagram.
Comments 4
Batgirl789 — July 24, 2010
I do not think that the two ideas are mutually exclusive: it is possible to think that my generation will never be as well off as my generation AND that my situation will improve.
I definitely think that my financial situation is not as good as my parents. Life and higher education are both way more expensive. A good job, and a good job with benefits, nearly impossible to find for recent graduates like myself. I have a ton of student loan debt, and I'm not alone. While I think that my life compared to my parents' lives will be much more difficult and not as luxurious: no house in the burbs, no one parent income that can support a stay at home spouse and kids in private school. But I also think that my life will improve. After you graduate and are living in a dump and on ramen struggling to pay off loans, life really has no where to go but up. But the up it takes me to will not be nearly as nice or financially well off as the life my parents' generation had.
Jenny McCarthyism — July 24, 2010
The recession has hit young people now the hardest and the loss of jobs/experience will continue to hit us for the rest of our lives.
All those young people without jobs now are being optimistic about getting jobs in the next year.
Ryan — July 24, 2010
As one of said young people, I can't see how my economic situation can get worse (short of eviction from my parents' house). So yes, I think my situation will improve, and that my generation won't have it nearly as good as the Boomers. (See: pensions, historic stock returns, cost of education/healthcare rel. to real wages, more international competition.)
I mean, is anyone really contesting that US economic growth between WWII and 9/11 was a consequence of a set of coalescing events that would be difficult to replicate?