For generations, most parents have sought to ensure that their children would have a better quality of life than they had. In fact, America was — and still is — deemed the land of opportunity, a place people seek out in hopes of having a better future for themselves and their children, fulfilling the “American dream.”
But it seems that dream is fading fast among America’s young people, as more than half of young adults believe it’s unlikely younger people today will have better lives than their parents, according to a new poll from the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy and the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.
Almost all of those polled said that raising a family and owning a home are important to them, but more than half said these goals are harder to achieve compared with their parents’ generation. Younger people especially believed this, with about seven in 10 Americans under 30 thinking home ownership has become harder to achieve.
Half of those polled also said it’s currently hard for them to improve their own standard of living, citing both economic conditions and social structural factors.
Per the AP report:
Josean Cano, 39, a bus operator in Chicago who is Hispanic, said he’s had a harder time economically than his parents. He mentioned inflation, high housing costs, and the recent baby formula shortage as examples.
“Things have doubled and tripled in price,” he said. “We’re not talking about gym shoes or concert tickets. We’re talking about essentials. Six months ago, you couldn’t find PediaSure. And if you could find it, it would be $20. It used to be $11 at Target.”
Cano noted that, in addition to grocery costs continuing to increase, the costs of rent and education have risen so much in recent years that workers on a basic wage are slowly getting squeezed.
The Economic Policy Institute shared that the federal minimum wage in 2021 was worth 34 percent less than in 1968, when its purchasing power peaked. “Many people perceive their options are less than what they had in the past,” said University of Chicago professor Steven Durlauf, who studies inequality and helped construct the study. “A lot of sense of well-being has to do with relative status, not absolute status.”
The study, as expected, also showed marked partisan disagreements over whether structural factors contribute to social mobility. “Democrats were more likely than Republicans to say that factors such as parents’ wealth, the community one lives in, college education, race and ethnicity, and gender greatly affect one’s social mobility. Black and Hispanic adults were also more likely than white adults to say a college education, race and ethnicity, and gender are very important factors,” the AP article claimed.
Even with their differing views, though, around half of both Democrats and Republicans reported it is currently difficult to improve their standard of living.
“The poll highlights that most people believe achieving a good standard of living is important but difficult to achieve,” said David Sterrett, senior research scientist with the AP-NORC Center. “At the same time, there is little public consensus about what factors enable people to improve their standard of living in this country.”
In a bright spot, children of the Great Depression and those Americans aged 60 or older are much more likely to believe it’s easier for them to achieve a good standard of living compared with their parents, the poll found.
“Only 35 percent of adults over 60 said it is ‘much or somewhat harder’ to achieve a good standard of living, compared with 54 percent of adults aged 18-29.”
This poll is just another glimpse into the current American psyche that is seeking to find the path to a better world while our leaders force us to accept the “Great Reset.”
So, what’s truly affecting young Americans, contributing to their belief that they won’t have a better life than their parents? Could it be generations of Americans lost to horrible, socialist-run public education? Is it that they have been given handouts and participation awards just for showing up, versus learning that life is a gift in itself, and that competition and some hard knocks are good for them?
The Left’s planned destruction of the family and the loss of morality would certainly top the list of what ails these young Americans — if the pollsters had asked those types of questions. But they didn’t. And they won’t, as they want instead to build fear and place the blame elsewhere.
Only hope, personal responsibility, and self-determination — along with liberty and freedom — will bring about a better quality of life for us all.
