
A new study shows that globally parents are worried that their children will be worse of economically than them. According to the Pew Research Center’s Global Attitudes Survey, a median of 57 percent of adults expect children in their country to be worse off financially than their parents. Respondents were from 36 countries, with higher income nations having the greatest concern about their children’s economic futures. France, the UK, Italy, and Australia had the highest share of adults pessimistic about the future, with 81 percent and 79 percent tied respectively. Seventy-four percent of US adults also believed their children would be worse off than their parents.
A majority of adults in 33 of the 36 countries also believed it would take serious economic reform to improve their country’s outlook. Only 34 percent of adults surveyed globally believed children would be better off economically, with countries in South Asia being the most optimistic. “In many countries, there is more economic pessimism today than before the COVID-19 pandemic — which hurt many people economically. In 15 of 31 countries where trends are available, the share of the public who thinks children will be worse off financially than their parents is higher today than in pre-pandemic surveys,” researchers stated.
The majority of respondents stated they believed economic disparity arose from wealthy individuals having too much political power, with 60 percent stating this happens “a great deal.” 48 percent stated problems with education created disparities. The study found that most of those who felt most pessimistic about the next generation’s economic future were dissatisfied with their country’s current economic situation. Those who were opposed to their country’s current political regime were also the least optimistic about the future. The COVID-19 pandemic may have also had an impact on people’s outlook, as levels of optimism have gone down since 2020.
Fifty-four percent of respondents stated that the gap between rich and poor in their country was “a very big problem” in their country, followed by racial or ethnic discrimination, which came out at 34 percent. Those who leaned more leftward in their ideology were also much more likely to see economic inequality as a problem over centrist and right-leaning individuals. In the US, for example, 76 percent of liberals felt the gap between rich and poor was a very big problem, while only 30 percent of those on the right felt the same way.