It’s not just the technology use or trendy eating habits that have changed for Americans. The financial stability of today’s 30-year-olds is vastly different from their parents’ and it could spell possible trouble for the older generations that will rely on them doing better. Â
In the mid-to-late 20th century, the American economy and culture were prime for 30-year-old men, who—more than European and Japanese men at the time—typically landed well-paid careers, bought homes, and supported large families. But since then, getting ahead has become much harder.
Today, 30-year-olds are more likely to be still living with their parents and, while earning about the same or less than boomers, are typically saddled with college debt.
A series of charts published by Axios shows just how different the lives current generation of adults is than their predecessors.
So far, the trends suggest a break with prior American rites of passage, Axios reports. According to some demographers, this break could slow economic growth.
Men are more likely to earn less. In 1975, only a quarter of 25- to 34-year-old men made less than $30K per year, but that number rose to 41% in 2016.
As a measure of upward mobility, 92% of 30-year-olds in 1970 earned more than their parents at that age, according to a 2016 study led by Raj Chetty, a Stanford economist. But of those who were 30 in 2014, just half earned more.
Chetty attributed most of this erosion to slower GDP growth in the U.S. and a change in the distribution of GDP favoring higher earners: GDP would have to rise by 6% a year to get the same impact, he said, and wealth would have to be distributed much more evenly.
In other words, Chetty suggested, it has become much, much harder for young lower- and middle-income workers to earn as much of the nation’s growing wealth as they once did.
