38% of Gen Z in "Midlife Crisis"
Gen Z is already hitting midlife crisis, as it turns out participation trophies do not, in fact, pay the bills.
That's according to a new study by behavioral researcher Vitality, which finds that 38% of Gen Z adults -- that is, ages 18 to 27 -- reported experiencing what they themselves describe as a "Midlife Crisis" driven by financial instability, mental health issues, and career uncertainty.
Gen Z workers were almost 2 and a half times more likely to experience depression compared to older colleagues -- pretty rough when you're in your twenties.
A separate study by Arta Finance found that 30% of Gen Z report financial issues as their primary source of stress -- beating out mental health at a robust 25% and dead-end careers, at 23%.
Together, these have given Gen Z "a growing sense of crisis."
Gen Z’s Dead End Economy
What's driving it, of course, is high inflation and slow growth of the Biden years. Wages that haven't kept up with inflation.
Houses that are out of reach until you make six figures -- so much for young families.
And a job market that's being revised into recession territory now tht the election's past. Driving those who can find a job into anything they can find, even a job they hate.
Toss in millions of illegal migrants who minimum wage every starter job this side of Only Fans and Gen Z is left facing a brutal future.
The first rungs on the ladder have been systemically knocked out, and Gen Z is left blaming themselves.
The Gen Z Doom Spiral
Gen Z's response is increasingly self-destructive.
Soaring so-called Doom Spending, where they splurge on trips to the Caribbean or 300 dollar shoes.
This does dull the pain today, but pretty much ends any dream of owning a house or starting a family.
NYU Professor Scott Galloway recently highlighted how Gen Z is the first generation in American history to make less than their parents.
As in, for 200 years our economy was working. Now it broke.
Stagnant job prospects contribute to rising anxiety and depression, obesity and addiction. Over-medication. Even incarceration and suicide, as the future fades out of sight.
The Population Reference Bureau found the suicide rate among Gen Z women and girls is almost twice what it was for Gen X.
As for men, one study found one in 3 Gen Z men haven't had sex in the past year, as they withdraw into a cocoon of gaming and Reddit.
Cause and effect being what it is, just 27% of 30 to 34 year olds have kids, compared to 60% in 1990.
One recent study pronounced Gen X "The loneliest generation," finding that 80% of Gen Z men say they "often" feel lonely and have few or no close friends.
What’s Next
We raised an entire generation in an education system that prioritized obedience and self-esteem over excellence, hard work and grit.
Then dumped them into a failing economy that is deeply unforgiving of the soft.
Raising the next generation will take root-and-branch reform of government schools -- ideally simply replacing them with vouchers.
As for the generation we've got, the best medicine is jobs that are plentiful and that pay enough to actually build a future.
It's going to be a long road, and voters will have to demand reforms on both education and economy -- government never fixes itself on its own.
Happily, we alrady know how to fix it -- our economy worked for 200 years, and our schools didn't used to be this bad.
But, like all government reform, it will be trench warfare.
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I am not a fan of whoever determines and names these artificial age groups. The WWII Baby Boomers goes out to 1964. Are we supposed to believe births in 1964 had much with the boys coming home in 1945?
All this information is suspect, as many refuse surveys routinely. Projection by survey is fraught with problems.
Lastly, do we really need to know how much sex this age group is having? Too much information.
Gen Z here. All true and worse than the stats say in my experience. I can’t speak for those that didn’t acquire a skill set or attend a top 20 university - I can only imagine it’s significantly worse for them. Every single one of my friends who works a solid 80-120k entry level job (tech, financial services, etc) is perpetually discontent. We see through the facade that is “work” which is mind numbing non creative data entry at best. The ladder is heavy at the top for industries which don’t monitor KPIs like a hawk. Boomers are 8/10 times miserable people and corporate culture is a mirror image of high school but with 0 privacy. Almost everyone I know either has quit their job in the past 6 months to pursue their own start-up, already works on a start-up or is saving up to quit within the next 12-18 months. For those that are unmotivated which I relate to because of an innate sense of unworthiness (which happens when reality meets perfectionism) there is no help (good therapists comprise 20% of all at best and drugs merely sedate you), only a willingness to put one foot in front of the other each day. The world continues to become more competitive and legacy institutions squeeze it to continue exploiting outdated systems of knowledge and power. Decentralization as a macro trend clearly threatens their way of life as governments and the corporations entangled with them grip onto our autonomy. Ultimately my understanding as to why the world is so mucked up, boils down to the simple fact that people are unwilling to change because it’s hard - objectively. Unfortunately this just means people in power pass that burden further and further down the societal ladder. Somehow I remain optimistic - a lot of my generation actually cares about ourselves, other people and the future. AI will do the sweeping out of the stagnant people and change makers will adapt. The world is as narrow as we make it and as wide as we want it. One day at a time.