Just 1 in 6 Young Americans are Financially Secure
Young Americans are barely keeping their head above water, with nearly half living paycheck to paycheck and just one in six Americans under age 30 saying they’re financially secure.
So says a new poll from the Harvard Kennedy School, which finds that most young Americans -- 56% -- think they will never achieve financial stability.
In case you wonder why they're ready to burn it all down.
As you'd expect, it's worst for those without a college degree. But even with a college degree, almost a third are living paycheck to paycheck.
Of course, that’s partly because they're carrying student loans for a degree that now costs more than $300,000.
Disturbingly, the poll found it's getting worse as they get older, with those in their late 20's in even worse shape than early 20's.
Another Lost Generation
It's not just financial; the poll finds that just one in six young people report having deep social connections or feeling deeply connected to their community.
In a recent article I mentioned how young Americans are the loneliest generation, with high rates of depression, obesity and addiction and 38% experiencing “midlife crisis” in their 20’s.
This apparently got a lot worse during the Covid lockdowns, with socially isolated young people reporting higher rates of depression -- especially those who were in high school or college during that pandemic. In fact, the Harvard poll reported a majority of young people who were socially isolated during the pandemic reported symptoms of depression.
Between their dire finances and mental issues, the young aren't even dating — they’ve given up. In the poll almost half think they will never find a long-term romantic partner, forget a spouse.
This means just half of young Americans expect to have kids.
Even fewer actually do have kids: In 1990 60% of Americans in their 30's had kids. Today it's just 27%.
Losing Ground
In recent videos I've mentioned how the percent of young Americans living with their parents is now at 1940's levels; at age 25 just one in seven Boomers lived at home, now it's 27% for millennials and 30% for Gen Z.
Worse, in 1970 most young adults living at home could afford to move out. Today it's just 18% -- the other four-fifths are stuck.
In other words, in 1940 young people lived at home because they were saving themselves for a good husband. Today they live at home because rat-infested one-bedrooms cost 60 hours a week packing groceries.
What's driving this, of course, is 50 years of stagnant wages.
Since the year 2000 alone median real incomes for young adults have dropped by 10% while costs soared.
One study last year from Raj Chetty at Stanford found that for the first time in American history — 250 years — kids are not doing better than their parents.
To give a flavor, for Americans born in 1940, fully 90% out-earned their parents at their age. By Gen X that was down to 60% -- thank Richard Nixon and Jimmy Carter.
For millennials it's now a "coin flip" with half earning less than their parents.
What’s Next
Trump is trying to help the young with mass deportations to boost entry-level wages while cutting red tape and small business tax to boost hiring and entrepreneurship and doing what he can to bring manufacturing back to America.
Taken together, these policies could return us to an economy where the young can get on the first rungs of the career ladder then earn into a house and a family.
But so far big Congress isn’t lifting a finger to help.
.
Every week I write an article on Economics and Freedom.
Subscribe to get each week’s article in your inbox. And thank you — you guys are why I write!
I also make short daily videos on economics and freedom:
X (new videos every weekday)
Roundup Podcast of all 5 videos for the week on Spotify, Apple, and Google as the Peter St Onge podcast.
End. The. Fed.
I think it's not just about young people's financial struggles it's that this sense of economic insecurity has deeply impacted their social relationships and emotional connections.