A recent report by the Resolution Foundation based on a survey of 2000 people aged 16-75 found that the vast majority of people are pessimistic about the prospects for young people.
In total, 21% of respondents believed Millennials (those born between 1981 and 2000) could expect to enjoy a better standard of living than their parents.
However young people are less pessimistic than older people: around 33% of young people think they will have a better life than their parents, while only 15% of older people said they’d rather be a young person growing up today.
The main points of the report include:
- There is widespread pessimism about young people’s lives compared to those of their parents
- Graduates, unemployed people and Labour voters are among the most pessimistic
- Housing, jobs and retirement living standards are the areas of greatest concern
- People believe that housing and jobs market failures are the key causes of this situation, with relatively little blame placed on the actions of generations themselves
- People believe that government actions can make a difference, with addressing broad economic challenges and improving public services the top priorities
Analysis
It’s important to remember that these are just the opinions of people – this data actually tells us nothing about the ACTUAL life chances of Millennials compared to their parents. However, what the last two findings suggest is that there is not such support for small state neoliberal policies – people seem to want government assistance to maintain living standards.
But then again the population go and vote the Tories in – which suggests either that the public is very confused about politics or that these opinion polls aren’t especially valid!
