American generation advances as Europe is left behind

While young Europeans face stagnation and declining life standards, American generation stands out with salary growth, social ascension and prosperity

The idea behind the concept of generations is that people born in a certain period share similar experiences, which in turn shape common attitudes.

Greatest generations and “Silent,” born in the early decades of the twentieth century, witnessed economic adversities and global conflicts, developing relatively progressive views. Baby Boomers, on the other hand, grew used to growth and prosperity, tending to be strongly conservative.

It was a similar story for millennials, who entered adulthood after the global financial crisis and were received with high unemployment, weak income growth and disparity between real estate and wages, becoming advocates of progressive policies.

Many analyzes and discourses treat millennials and generation Z as close cousins, united in the struggle to achieve the prosperity of previous generations. But the validity of this comparison depends a lot on where you look.

Millennials in the western world were actually united in their bad economic luck. From the US and Canada to the UK and Western Europe, the generation born between mid -1980s lived its years of adult formation in a weak or stagnant salary growth scenario and falling home property.

Absolute ascending mobility – how much the members of a generation gain compared to their parents’ generation at the same age – has constantly fell. In the US, when someone born in 1985 turned 30, their average income was just a few percentage points above their parents at the same age, very different from clear and palpable gains from 50 to 60% of generations born in the 1950s.

On both sides of the Atlantic, the narrative of the bad luck of millennials is not a myth. They can be remembered as the economically most unlucky generation of the last century.

But then we reached a fork. For young adults in the UK and most of Western Europe, conditions have only worsened since. If you found the annual growth of less than 1% in Millennial’s life standards, try negative numbers. British born in the mid -1990s saw their life patterns not only stagnate but fall. Throughout Europe, there is too little for younger adults to celebrate.

Already in the US, generation Z is advancing quickly. American lifestyles have grown an average of 2.5% per year since the generation born in the late 1990s came into adulthood, providing this generation not only much more upward mobility than its millennial predecessors, but also more improvement Fast in life standards than young boomers have been at the same age. And it’s not just income: American generation is also surpassing millennials on the climb of the real estate property.

All signs indicate that in the US, the slowdown of decades in economic progress between generations not only stopped but reversed. Americans born in 1995 are enjoying more upward mobility in relation to their parents than those born in 1965. Zoomers by name, zoomers by socioeconomic nature.

Both the change in the economic trajectories of young Americans and the divergence of their European peers raise interesting questions.

From a sociological perspective, in an era of narratives without borders on social networks and algorithms that reward negativity, the meme of adversity of young adults can survive contact with the reality of American generation? And with a flood of negative social comparisons to just a touch of smartphone, like the growing perception that young Americans are on an upward trajectory affecting European young people?

Returning to politics, will the youngest generation of American voters go their own way? The fact that not only younger men, but also young women, supported Donald Trump in the American election suggests that this may already be happening. A group that sees itself as a winner in life may not develop the same instinct of social solidarity as its oppressed predecessors have acquired.

In an era of “vibration changes,” the transition from a sense of descendant mobility to one of increasing prosperity can be the largest of all. A divergence in the emotional climate on both sides of the Atlantic will surely inject a new urgency in the pursuit of Europe for its own improvement.

Anyway, the resumption of the economic treadmill in the US can prove an extremely significant moment.

By John Burning-Murdoch, for the Financial Times*