The pessimistic economic outlook can be summed up in one survey question: Asked if they felt confident that life for their children's generation "will be better than it has been for us," only 21% of respondents answered affirmatively.
The Hillnoted that 42% of people who took a similar survey in 2001 said they didn't think their children would enjoy better lives than theirs. Today, that figure has soared to 78%.
Other survey findings include:
- 92% said that rising costs of living is creating some degree of financial strain in their lives, or will cause problems if prices keep rising;
- 52% said it would be difficult to find a job with another employer with approximately the same income and fringe benefits they have now;
- 56% said a four-year undergraduate degree isn't worth the cost because people often graduate without specific job skills and with a large amount of debt; and
- 44% said their personal finances are in worse shape than they imagined for themselves at this stage of life.
Despite the respondents' economic pessimism, 68% of people polled said they were "pretty happy" or "very happy" in life.
The Associated Pressand NORC—the University of Chicago's research arm—published a separate poll Friday that found "about half of U.S. adults in households earning less than $60,000 annually and about 4 in 10 of those in households earning $60,000 to $100,000 say they're very stressed by their personal finances."
According to the
AP:
About three-quarters of adults across income groups say their household expenses are higher now than they were a year ago, but those in households earning less than $100,000 a year are more likely than those in higher-income households to say they also have higher debt. Those facing a combination of rising debt and expenses overwhelmingly say their financial situation is a major source of stress.
One 76-year-old woman interviewed by the
APsaid that "there's no comfort zone in their finances—no vacation" for people like her, who are " just getting by."
"Medications are expensive. Groceries. No one's living large or having fun," she added. "They should be having fun."
A 28-year-old single mother who works at an Alabama Walmart told the
AP: "I used to do three grocery trips a month. Now it's one-and-a-half at the most."
"We're just gonna have to cut back on a lot of things," she added.
