MOSCOW, November 21, Tatyana Pichugina.They say about millennials: “lost”, “abandoned”, “unhappy”. New scientific data refutes this. Those born at the end of the 20th century are wealthier than previous generations and know how to combine a career with a personal life. What traditions did “young adults” manage to break — in the material .
Who are millennials
Having been born in a relatively prosperous time, in the 1980-90s, without global wars, millennials have never lived in a stable world. They were brought up in the paradigm of success through hard study and work. But economic and political crises have left their mark.
“Saddled with debt, unable to get rich, stuck in low-paying, dead-end jobs, they will never achieve the financial security that their parents, grandparents or even older siblings enjoyed,” columnist Annie Lowry wrote in The Atlantic at the height of the COVID pandemic. -19.
In the American media, millennials are called «insecure», «screwed up», «the first generation poorer than their parents.» They explain this by prolonging childhood. Even by the age of 35, millennials prefer to live with their parents, often change jobs and areas of activity, and do not buy apartments.
“Millennials are fully aware of the social and economic problems of our time,” notes David Gorski of the Stanford Center on Poverty and Inequality.
According to the center, millennials have a much larger income gap. The well-educated can earn good money, the rest are poorer than previous generations at their age. The gap is no less in ethnic origin. In addition, mortality increased by 20 percent, mainly due to suicide and drug overdose.
Broken cultural code
Vadim Radaev, a researcher at the Higher School of Economics, considers millennials to be a “new anthropological type.” He associates them with the “quiet social change” that occurred at the turn of the century. These people have no experience of life in the Soviet Union; they grew up in a relatively stable and prosperous period — after 2000.
Based on statistical material and his own observations, the scientist came to the conclusion that millennials are noticeably different from older generations according to many indicators. The main source of data is the Russian Monitoring of the Economic Situation and Health of the Population of the National Research University Higher School of Economics, conducted since 1994. This is almost 260 thousand annual surveys.
Millennials are indeed starting families later. There are almost twice as many people who have not registered a marriage as among the reform generation (born from 1968 to 1981). There are many childless people, in 2009 — 67%. Among reformers at the same age — 31%. Among younger millennials, they are designated 3C, in 2018 even more — 81%.
Millennials enter the labor market later because they study longer, Radaev points out. They put off independent living, although there are opportunities. By the way, their relationship with their parents is much better than that of previous generations.
They often change jobs. They are easy to captivate, but difficult to retain; it is impossible to achieve loyalty to the organization, the scientist notes.
The American publication Mashable provides a list of things that millennials have discarded as outdated. There are 70 positions in total. Including ownership of apartments, motorcycles, diamonds. And also lunches and bar soap. And alcohol.
Alcohol consumption for sociologists is one of the main characteristics of society. This is an element of the cultural code. And millennials broke it.
According to the HSE, this is the first generation to drink less alcohol than the previous generation. Although, it would seem, their time saw an increase in income, quality of drinks and assortment, and a decrease in relative prices. Millennials play sports and rarely smoke. This is a global trend, and they set it.
Surveys also show that millennials are the most optimistic generation. They are more satisfied with their lives than their predecessors. Although, Radaev clarifies, it is possible that this is due to age.
They killed the American dream
In recent years, another trend has emerged — enrichment. “Millennials are not bankrupt. In fact, they are thriving economically,” says American psychologist Gene Twenge of the University of San Diego. The turning point happened after 2010. In 2021, household income for 25-44 year olds reached an all-time high.
Scientists from the UK, Germany and France compared millennials with post-war baby boomers at the same age. Based on the results of the National Longitudinal Study in the United States (NLSY79 and NLSY79).
It turned out that by the age of 35, millennials with a typical life trajectory significantly outperformed baby boomers in terms of well-being, including the number of financial assets. True, they also have more debts.
And most importantly, due to them, the property gap increases. “Rich millennials now have more money than their predecessors, while poor millennials have even less,” the press service of the University of Cambridge quotes the lead author of the work, Rob Gruyters.
Scholars see increasing economic inequality as a threat to the American dream and call on politicians to respond to this .
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