Yoof has never had it so bad?

Where did all go wrong? Please excuse a rather grumpy blog posting about the differences in life expectation of the young and their parents.

I have just finished my weekly read of the Economist that contained an article about the state of marriage in the US (The frayed knot). Sorry, no link, it is subscription only.

The basic conclusion is that marriage and stability of families is alive and well amongst the better educated and wealthier strata of society and going into free fall amongst the poor classes.

Look at chart showing how the gap between the numbers of single parents increased since the end of the Boomer era for all levels of parental education but primarily amongst those with the lowest educational attainment. The only positive thing you can say is that it looks like the difference was beginning to tail-off.

At the same time I read another report that looks at the healthiness (or not) of social mobility in the US. As a group, today’s 30 somethings have on average 12 % less income than their fathers’ generation at the same age. This suggests the up-escalator that has historically ensured that each generation would do better than the last may not be working very well.

A third report, from Visa USA, provides a slightly rosier view of the young.

I am sure if I dug around I would find data showing a similar, if not worse situation in the UK.

For the first time ever, the family cohesion, wealth, income and health of today’s young looks like it is worse than that of their parents. That’s not good. Dick Stroud