美好的往日时光可能要到你老了才会发生,至少在美国是这样。在我们每月一次对“孩子们(或者年轻人)过得好不好”的调查中,答案似乎依旧在告诉我们他们过得并不开心。
《世界幸福报告》(World Happiness Report)每年根据自我报告的幸福评分对140多个国家进行排名。今年,该报告首次对数据进行了代际分析。报告的作者发现,在大多数地区,年轻人是最幸福的群体。但这个规律却并不适用于美国、加拿大、澳大利亚和新西兰等英语国家的年轻人。在这些地区,年长受访者的幸福评分远高于年轻人。在美国,年轻人非常不开心,甚至拉低了全美的平均评分。
自十多年前该报告首次发布以来,美国今年的幸福排名首次跌出前20名。美国各年龄段的成年人给出的评分都较低,但最沮丧的则是年轻人。婴儿潮一代正在相对开心地玩宾果游戏,大声喊出《危险边缘》(Jeopardy)的答案——美国60岁以上人群的幸福排名为第10名。但按照30岁以下年轻人的幸福评分,美国排在了第62名。
报告的合著者、温哥华经济学院(Vancouver School of Economics)教授约翰·海利维尔向《纽约时报》谈到了年轻人和老年人反转的幸福评分。他表示:“我从未见过这种极端的变化。这一切都发生在过去10年,而且主要发生在英语国家。整个世界并没有出现这种变化。”
出现这种变化的部分原因可以归咎于孤独流行病,即在疫情之后年轻人表示孤独感升高。在年轻人的幸福感低于年长者的四个国家,千禧一代的孤独感几乎是1965年前出生的年长者的两倍。尽管如此,报告发现在现实中,千禧一代的社交联系实际上比婴儿潮一代更频繁。与此同时,“中东欧转型国家”的年轻人比年长者的幸福感更高。(差异最大的国家是克罗地亚,报告的作者表示该国许多老年人“承受了20世纪90年代初前南斯拉夫解体后的战争和种族屠杀所留下的伤疤”。)
另一方面,这些以英语为主要语言的国家的年轻人却感觉没有取得他们认为应得的相对进展或成功。
一位Z世代农民瑞恩·巴克对《财富》杂志谈到他的同龄人发现大学毕业后很难找到一份薪酬丰厚的工作。他表示:“曾经有一条职业发展路径,这条路径虽然没有消失,但它变得更加漫长和艰难。”
至少对于千禧一代或Z世代而言,这并不完全是可怕的结果。许多年轻人难以维持生计,同时还要在人生中特别脆弱的一段时期承受经济衰退的影响,因此面对长达数年的通货膨胀和日益沉重的学生贷款,他们不得不依靠长辈。
作为亲眼见证传说中的美国梦真正破裂的一批人,74%的千禧一代和65%的Z世代对《今日美国》(USA Today)报告称,他们感觉“他们在财务上的起点已经远远落后于”其他代际在相同年龄时的水平。买房这种积累财富的传统途径,对于许多美国年轻人而言似乎已经是一个破碎的梦想(除非你期望继承遗产)。一旦千禧一代终于攒够买房的资金,他们却被全款买房的婴儿潮一代挤出了市场。报告的作者指出,在年轻人幸福感下降的国家,“千禧一代感觉比婴儿潮一代获得的社会支持更少”。
对于许多年轻人而言,退休也变得难以实现。婴儿潮一代和Z世代已经表示他们的储蓄难以维持退休生活,而且年轻人要面临同样艰难的局面,却没有退休金或社会保险作为保障。年长的美国人掌控了政界和公司管理层:美国本届国会的中位数年龄为59岁,而即将举行的大选则是美国历史上年龄最大的两位总统候选人的对决。随着不平等加剧,婴儿潮一代成为获胜的一方,他们掌握了全美一半的财富。
年轻一代幸福感更低是理所当然的,因为他们拥有的权利更少。当然,社交媒体让年轻人更容易了解到地缘政治动荡。经济困境、日益加剧的气候变化和新冠疫情,都加剧了年轻人的不满情绪。
Z世代内容创作者阿耶姆·克朋坎在2023年对《财富》杂志表示:“当我们看到世界正在眼前崩溃时,我们就不会过度关注工作。电子邮件甚至TiKTok数据,与我们每天看到的那些气候新闻相比显得微不足道。”
OnePoll代表国家债务减免组织(National Debt Relief)开展的一项调查显示,大多数(65%)Z世代和千禧一代表示担心婴儿潮一代对他们的财务未来的影响。该项调查有2,000名受访者,每个主要代际各有500人。
幸福感的不平衡最终会让所有人感到沮丧,因为正如报告发现,在幸福程度更平衡的国家,人们的幸福感更高。这或许是加剧年轻人危机的原因,就像在北美一样,幸福不平等加剧了,但受影响的却只有年轻人。(财富中文网)
翻译:刘进龙
审校:汪皓
美好的往日时光可能要到你老了才会发生,至少在美国是这样。在我们每月一次对“孩子们(或者年轻人)过得好不好”的调查中,答案似乎依旧在告诉我们他们过得并不开心。
《世界幸福报告》(World Happiness Report)每年根据自我报告的幸福评分对140多个国家进行排名。今年,该报告首次对数据进行了代际分析。报告的作者发现,在大多数地区,年轻人是最幸福的群体。但这个规律却并不适用于美国、加拿大、澳大利亚和新西兰等英语国家的年轻人。在这些地区,年长受访者的幸福评分远高于年轻人。在美国,年轻人非常不开心,甚至拉低了全美的平均评分。
自十多年前该报告首次发布以来,美国今年的幸福排名首次跌出前20名。美国各年龄段的成年人给出的评分都较低,但最沮丧的则是年轻人。婴儿潮一代正在相对开心地玩宾果游戏,大声喊出《危险边缘》(Jeopardy)的答案——美国60岁以上人群的幸福排名为第10名。但按照30岁以下年轻人的幸福评分,美国排在了第62名。
报告的合著者、温哥华经济学院(Vancouver School of Economics)教授约翰·海利维尔向《纽约时报》谈到了年轻人和老年人反转的幸福评分。他表示:“我从未见过这种极端的变化。这一切都发生在过去10年,而且主要发生在英语国家。整个世界并没有出现这种变化。”
出现这种变化的部分原因可以归咎于孤独流行病,即在疫情之后年轻人表示孤独感升高。在年轻人的幸福感低于年长者的四个国家,千禧一代的孤独感几乎是1965年前出生的年长者的两倍。尽管如此,报告发现在现实中,千禧一代的社交联系实际上比婴儿潮一代更频繁。与此同时,“中东欧转型国家”的年轻人比年长者的幸福感更高。(差异最大的国家是克罗地亚,报告的作者表示该国许多老年人“承受了20世纪90年代初前南斯拉夫解体后的战争和种族屠杀所留下的伤疤”。)
另一方面,这些以英语为主要语言的国家的年轻人却感觉没有取得他们认为应得的相对进展或成功。
一位Z世代农民瑞恩·巴克对《财富》杂志谈到他的同龄人发现大学毕业后很难找到一份薪酬丰厚的工作。他表示:“曾经有一条职业发展路径,这条路径虽然没有消失,但它变得更加漫长和艰难。”
至少对于千禧一代或Z世代而言,这并不完全是可怕的结果。许多年轻人难以维持生计,同时还要在人生中特别脆弱的一段时期承受经济衰退的影响,因此面对长达数年的通货膨胀和日益沉重的学生贷款,他们不得不依靠长辈。
作为亲眼见证传说中的美国梦真正破裂的一批人,74%的千禧一代和65%的Z世代对《今日美国》(USA Today)报告称,他们感觉“他们在财务上的起点已经远远落后于”其他代际在相同年龄时的水平。买房这种积累财富的传统途径,对于许多美国年轻人而言似乎已经是一个破碎的梦想(除非你期望继承遗产)。一旦千禧一代终于攒够买房的资金,他们却被全款买房的婴儿潮一代挤出了市场。报告的作者指出,在年轻人幸福感下降的国家,“千禧一代感觉比婴儿潮一代获得的社会支持更少”。
对于许多年轻人而言,退休也变得难以实现。婴儿潮一代和Z世代已经表示他们的储蓄难以维持退休生活,而且年轻人要面临同样艰难的局面,却没有退休金或社会保险作为保障。年长的美国人掌控了政界和公司管理层:美国本届国会的中位数年龄为59岁,而即将举行的大选则是美国历史上年龄最大的两位总统候选人的对决。随着不平等加剧,婴儿潮一代成为获胜的一方,他们掌握了全美一半的财富。
年轻一代幸福感更低是理所当然的,因为他们拥有的权利更少。当然,社交媒体让年轻人更容易了解到地缘政治动荡。经济困境、日益加剧的气候变化和新冠疫情,都加剧了年轻人的不满情绪。
Z世代内容创作者阿耶姆·克朋坎在2023年对《财富》杂志表示:“当我们看到世界正在眼前崩溃时,我们就不会过度关注工作。电子邮件甚至TiKTok数据,与我们每天看到的那些气候新闻相比显得微不足道。”
OnePoll代表国家债务减免组织(National Debt Relief)开展的一项调查显示,大多数(65%)Z世代和千禧一代表示担心婴儿潮一代对他们的财务未来的影响。该项调查有2,000名受访者,每个主要代际各有500人。
幸福感的不平衡最终会让所有人感到沮丧,因为正如报告发现,在幸福程度更平衡的国家,人们的幸福感更高。这或许是加剧年轻人危机的原因,就像在北美一样,幸福不平等加剧了,但受影响的却只有年轻人。(财富中文网)
翻译:刘进龙
审校:汪皓
The good ole’ days might not happen until you’re old, at least if you live in the United States. In our monthly temperature check of if the kids (or young adults) are alright, the answer seems to remain a resounding no, not really.
The World Happiness Report, which annually ranks more than 140 countries based on self-reported happiness scores, took a generational dive into data for the first time. The authors found young people tend to be the happiest in most regions. But that pattern doesn’t hold for the youth in four English-speaking countries including the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. In these regions, happiness rankings for older respondents are much higher than for the young. In America, young adults are so bummed out that it’s driven down the national average ranking.
This year, the United States dropped out of the top 20 ranking in happiness for the first time since the report began a little more than a decade ago. Adults across all ages in the nation reported lower scores, but the youth appeared to be most dejected. Baby boomers are having a relative blast playing bingo and yelling out Jeopardy answers— as the U.S. ranked No. 10 for those 60 and older. But the country plummets to number 62 for those under 30.
“I have never seen such an extreme change,” John Helliwell, a co-author of the report and professor at the Vancouver School of Economics told the New York Times, when speaking about the inverted youth and elder happiness scores. “This has all happened in the last 10 years, and it’s mainly in the English-language countries. There isn’t this drop in the world as a whole.”
Part of what might be happening can be attributed to the loneliness epidemic, as younger generations report heightened isolation after the pandemic. Millennial loneliness was almost double that of those born before 1965, in the four countries where young people was not as happy as their older peers. Even so, the report finds that in reality, millennials actually have more frequent social connections than boomers. Meanwhile, the young adults in “the transition countries of Central and Eastern Europe” are much happier than older generations. (The biggest divide is in Croatia, the authors note many of the elders there “bear the most scars from the early 1990s wars and genocide following the breakup of the former Yugoslavia.”)
On the other hand, young people in these largely English-speaking countries are dealing with the feeling of a lack of relative progress or a lack of success they believe was promised to them.
“There was a path, and that path was not necessarily taken away, but the path became a lot longer and harder,” Ryan Buck, a Gen Z farmer, tells Fortune, referring to his peers finding it difficult to find a well-paying job after college.
This is not an entirely shocking result, at least if you’re a millennial or Gen Zer. Struggling to make ends meet while weathering recessions during an especially vulnerable time in their lives, many in these cohorts have been pushed to depend on older generations as they deal with years of inflation and ballooning student loans.
Living to see the fabled American Dream truly fray, 74% of millennials and 65% of Gen Zers report to USA Today they feel that they’re “starting further behind financially” than other generations at the same age. The traditional avenue of building wealth—buying a house—seems to be a dead dream for many young adults in America (unless you’re expecting an inheritance). Once millennials finally were able to scrape together enough to buy a house, they were priced out by baby boomers with all-cash offers. “Millennials also feel less socially supported than Boomers” in the countries where youth happiness dipped, the report’s authors noted.
Retirement, too, has begun to feel untenable for many younger generations. Boomers and Gen Xers already report difficulty in outliving their savings, and young adults are navigating the same uphill climb but without the safety of a pension or guarantee of social security still being around. In politics and the C-suite, older Americans are holding court: The current class of Congress has a median age of 59 and the upcoming election is a fight between the two oldest presidential candidates in the nation’s history. As inequality intensifies, baby boomers are winning out, accounting for half of the nation’s wealth.
It stands to reason that younger generations feel less happy because they’re less empowered. Of course, they’re also incredibly informed of geopolitical unrest by nature of social media. Economic straits, intensifying climate change, and a pandemic all fuel the generation’s discontent.
“It’s hard to stress too much over work as we can see the world crumbling in front of us,” Ayem Kpenkaan, a Gen Z content creator, told Fortune in 2023. “Emails or even TikTok numbers seem pretty small compared to all the climate news we receive on a daily basis.”
Most (65%) Gen Zers and millennials report feeling worried about boomers’ effect on their financial future, per a survey by OnePoll on behalf of National Debt Relief, which polled 2,000 Americans, 500 from each of the four dominant generations.
The imbalance in happiness ends up bringing everyone down in the end, as the report finds that people tend to be happier living in countries where there is a greater equality in happiness. Perhaps that is what is adding to the youth’s crisis, as in North America, happiness inequality has increased—but only for younger generations.