While the Impeachment Drama Drones On, Bernie Releases Report on Millennials’ Lower Living Standards

By Shane Ryan  |  December 18, 2019 | 2:33pm
Photo courtesy of Getty
Politics Features Millennials
While the Impeachment Drama Drones On, Bernie Releases Report on Millennials’ Lower Living Standards
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Impeachment is the right thing to do, but it doesn’t matter. Both of these things are true, but as usual, the American media has devoted the bulk of its energies to the shiny drama rather than to real problems affecting the lives of real Americans. Not so for Teen Vogue, which long ago proved that big stories can come from unlikely outlets, and continues that trend today with an exclusive on a new report from Bernie Sanders’ team about the dire economic situation for Millennials. From the story:

But recent years have seen the publication of study after study showing that this is not the case, especially for young people. A new report prepared by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) for Vermont senator and 2020 presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, and provided to Teen Vogue, offers fresh evidence. The road to the American Dream looks much bumpier for millennials (people born between 1982 and 2000) than it did for Generation X (people born between 1965 and 1981) and baby boomers (people born between 1946 and 1964).

Millennials are unlike any generation that came before. According to the report, they’re more diverse (40% of millennial households are headed by someone who belongs to a racial or ethnic minority group); more educated (in 2016, an estimated 62% of millennial households had someone with at least an associate’s degree); and are marrying, cohabitating, and having children at significantly lower rates than their predecessors (in 2016, 44% of millennials were partnered and had children by age 34, compared with 54% of baby boomers). More notably, according to this report, millennials are financially worse off than their parents and may not have the opportunity to do better.

The key stats here are a comparison between 1970, when 94% of Americans aged 30 earned more than their parents, while in 2010 that number was 50%, and in 2016 the median net worth for Millennials was 36% lower than their Gen X peers at the same age. Home ownership is lower, student loan debt is astronomically higher, and it’s worse for people of color and poor people, not to mention those who live in low income areas.

Here’s Sanders’ statement:

“If we don’t fundamentally transform our economy, we are facing — for the first time in the history of this country — the possibility that our young people will suffer a worse future than their parents had. This report confirms my fears.”

 
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