Are Today’s Young a Disillusioned Generation?
Scarce jobs, fewer promotions, soaring costs for shelter and other necessities—all are causing the nation’s young to revamp their dreams for the good life.
Many of the nation’s young people are convinced that despite the economy’s steady climb out of recession, they will get only a tiny share of the spreading prosperity—or nothing at all.
They are the disillusioned generation, people in their 20s and early 30s who wonder whatever happened to the American dream. In the past, it was almost a national birthright to expect to live better than one’s parents—own a bigger home, drive a fancier car and have more money for leisure pursuits. Yet today, for many young adults, that dream has turned into a fast-fading mirage.
Large numbers of them, even with college degrees, are hard pressed to find jobs of any kind, let alone good jobs. Median income for their age group has plunged from that of just a decade ago. To them, housing prices seem outlandish, and new cars are out of sight for all but the affluent.
Those hurt are no small segment of the nation. They come from a group that represents nearly a quarter of the entire population and more than 40 percent of working-age people. This is the group born during the post-World WarⅡ baby boom, the crowd now competing in shockingly high numbers in a tight job market.