Growing up in the shadow of two decades of wars, multiple economic collapses, and now a pandemic, you might think that young people in America are doomed. As columnist David Brooks recently noted, “Children can now expect to have a lower quality of life than their parents.” Brooks is not alone in his fears for the next generation; most people believe that today’s children will not grow up to be better off.
This downbeat assessment is also not unique to our turbulent times. For decades, with the exception of the economic boom times of the late 1990s, people have feared for the next generation. But this worry is more often the province of older people, concerned that the children of any given era are on a troubled path.
Young people, by contrast, are typically the most upbeat about their own prospects. They largely believe that if they work hard, they will succeed in life. They think they are able to move up the economic ladder. Most, especially young people of color, expect to live a better life than their parents did.
And according to a new survey I conducted in partnership with the Walton Family Foundation, two-thirds of young people today believe that the American dream is within reach.
Contrary to the dour portrait of a generation permanently hamstrung by the errors of their forebears, millennials and Generation Zers see themselves as able to overcome the barriers in their way, confident in their generation’s capacity for leading the way and bringing about change.
For over a decade, I have studied the millennial generation. As they have grown older, with some millennials now approaching the ripe old age of 40, their views on the world have largely stayed consistent: pragmatic, mission-driven, focused on values of fairness and compassion. With Generation Z now entering adulthood and coming right on their heels, these two generations are likely to make a sizable impact on our national discourse, in this year’s election and beyond.
Engagement with issues and causes has been on the rise, and in the 2018 midterms, it was the youngest voters who saw the sharpest increase in turnout percentage over the prior midterm. This massive rise in engagement is born out of an acknowledgment of the major barriers that their generations face, paired with a determination to do something about it.
In my research, when we ask millennials how they would describe their own generation, they say: resilient, persistent, entrepreneurial. Millennials have endured a great deal of upheaval, yet seem eager to adapt, to power through, and to build better lives for themselves in the face of those hurdles. Generation Z, meanwhile, feels empowered to speak out and has taken the opportunity to do so loudly, pushing for change on issues such as the environment and racial justice. The words Generation Zers in my research are most likely to use to describe their own cohort? Conscious, innovative, outspoken.
Why would millennials and Generation Z feel optimistic in the face of all that has been thrown at them? After all, in my research, I find plenty for young people to be upset about. Four in ten say that expensive and out-of-reach higher education is a very big problem they face. Six in ten young black Americans say racial inequality is something they face that diminishes their opportunities. Worries about the declining state of the environment, lack of access to quality healthcare, and the economic effects of COVID-19 are just some of the burdens millennials and Generation Z say they have to bear.
Young people, nonetheless, feel able to succeed in life because they are confident in their own abilities and are focused on expanding the tools to unlock opportunity. Education, for instance, is considered a key ingredient in making success possible, and young people consistently note that public schools are one of the biggest factors that can create opportunity. Pushing for better public education, a cleaner environment, and greater equity are just some of the arenas where millennials and Generation Zers think change is necessary and possible.
Through all the mayhem of the last two decades, from Sept. 11 to the wild moment in which we currently sit, we live in a world that makes it easier than ever for young people to speak out, to push for change, and to try to build the life that they imagine for themselves. Rather than fear for their future, they’re ready to take the wheel and bring about change on their own terms. That, not a one-size-fits-all image of a white picket fence, nor even a broader aspirational vision about moving up a ladder, is how they define the American dream.
