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— Peter St Onge, Ph.D. (@profstonge) January 10, 2025
Young adults Gen Z is hitting midlife crisis in the their twenties. As it turns out, participation trophies do not, in fact, pay the bills. That's according to a new study by Behavior researcher, Vitality, which finds that 38% of Gen Z adults, that is ages 18 to 27, report experiencing what they themselves describe as a midlife crisis, driven by financial instability, mental health issues, and career uncertainty. Gen Z workers were almost 2.5 times more likely to experience depression compared to older colleagues, which is pretty rough when you're in your twenties. A separate study by Arta Finance found that 30% of Gen Z report financial issues is their primary sources, trust beating out mental health at a robust 25% and dead end careers at 23%. Together these have given Gen Z a growing sense of crisis. Now what's driving it, of course, is high inflation and slow growth of the Biden years which means wages that have not kept up with inflation add in houses that are out of reach until you make six figures. So much for young families, plus, a job market that's being revised into recession territory now that the election has passed, driving those who can find a job into anything they can find even a job they hate. And then finally millions of illegal immigrants who minimum wage every starter job this side of only fans gen Z's response is increasingly self-destructive sorry so called Doom spending where they splurge on trips to the Caribbean or $300 shoes which does dull the pain today but pretty much ends any dream of owning a house or starting a family.
NYU Professor, Scott Galloway, recently highlighted how Gen Z is the first generation in American history to make less than their parents as in for 200 years our economy was working making every generation richer. Now it broke. This contributes to rising anxiety and depression, obesity and addiction, over medication, even incarceration and suicide as the future fades out of sight. The population Reference Bureau found that suicide rate among Gen Z women and girls is almost twice as for men. One study found that 1 in 3 Gen Z men have not had sex in the past year as they withdraw into a cocoon of gaming and Reddit. Cause and effect being what it is, just 27% of 30 to 40 year-olds have kids, compared to 60% in 1990. One recent study pronounced Gen X the loneliest generation, finding that 80% of Gen Z men say they're often lonely and have few or no close friends. They are shutting in.
We raised an entire generation in an education system that prioritized obedience and self-esteem over excellence, hard work, and grit. Then we dumped them into a failing economy that is deeply unforgiving of the soft. Raising the next generation will take root and branch reform of government schools, ideally simply replacing them with vouchers. As for the generation we've got, the best medicine is jobs that are plentiful and that pay enough to actually build a future. It's going to be a long road and voters will have to demand reforms on both education and economy. Government will not fix itself. Happily we know how to fix it. Our economy worked for 200 years, and our schools didn't used to be this bad. But like all government reform, it will be trench warfare.
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