Polls show increasing pessimism about the direction of the country and the life future generations will be able to build. Since the pre-pandemic year of 2019, the Gallup Poll has consistently found that less than half of voters expect young people to have a better life than they did. They are also worried that the components of a middle-class lifestyle are increasingly out of reach for them and their children.
Bloomberg News summarizes how the economy has changed for average Americans:
“The standard 20% down payment on a median-priced home now costs 83% of a year’s income for the typical family ready to buy a home, up from 65% on the eve of the 2016 election.
Buying a new car takes almost two extra weeks of work for the median household compared to eight years ago.
Child care then cost the same family about a quarter of its weekly income. Now it swallows up more than a third.
A median household can expect to pay 75% of its annual income for a private college and more than third for a public in-state university. That is up significantly from when many of today’s parents went to college themselves.”
Under Joe Biden, the American Dream has been downsized and made less attainable. As Bloomberg sums up, “The coveted rewards of hard work and striving” are increasingly elusive for more and more Americans, and they are searching for answers.