Harris poll for Guardian finds people reconsidering major life events such as having children or buying a home

Harris poll for Guardian finds people reconsidering major life events such as having children or buying a home

Americans are reconsidering major life events including marriage, having children and buying a home amid economic anxiety in the opening months of the Trump presidency, according to an exclusive poll for the Guardian.

Six in 10 Americans said the economy has affected at least one of their major life goals, according to the Harris poll, citing either lack of affordability or anxiety around the current economy.

Though Donald Trump’s tariff policies have only been in place for a few weeks, and though he has temporarily walked back on some of his harshest policies, the findings are a sign that Trump’s economic agenda could have long-term effects.

  • barneypiccolo@lemm.eeEnglish
    12·
    18 hours ago

    I’ve been trying to get back to the life I had before it blew up in 2008. My 26 year old son says that the Bush Economic Crash of 2008 looms large in the lives of his friends. Many in his generation had their entire lives thrown into chaos in the middle of their childhoods, giving them a wired in sense of foreboding toward their future. They know that no matter how good your life is, the government can destroy your life with mindless policies designed to benefit a tiny few elites, at the expense of everyone else.

    No wonder that so many young people are thinking that Socialism/ Marxism/ Communism sounds like a reasonable alternative to whatever arbitrary system we have now.

    • CalipherJones@lemmy.worldEnglish
      9·
      15 hours ago

      The entire image of America sold to me as a child was a lie and I’m having a very difficult time rectifying that.

    • BlameTheAntifa@lemmy.world
      81·
      15 hours ago

      No wonder that so many young people are thinking that Socialism/ Marxism/ Communism sounds like a reasonable alternative to whatever arbitrary system we have now.

      Plenty of societies have demonstrated that socialist policies do work. It’s sometimes called the “Nordic model”. We have the blueprint, but America is neoliberal (aka oligarchic/neo-feudal) and those who hoard all the wealth and power will not give any of it up without a fight.

      Marxism/Communism has noble ends - a classless, stateless, truly equal and equitable society - but there no viable means to such an end, as history has demonstrated, due to the innate wickedness and selfishness of human nature.

      The successful systems are the ones that still reward innovation, ambition, effort, and vision, but use regulation to prevent too much consolidation. Even the founders of the US recognized this, which is why we have “anti-trust” laws, a trust being any kind of captured control that stifles competition. Unfortunately, they have been left to rot on the vine, gone unenforced, and even deliberately weakened by neoliberal policy that aims to strengthen and cement an anticompetitive, consolidatory, neo-feudal caste of ur-nobility.

    • Ænima@lemm.ee
      3·
      16 hours ago

      My faith that things could be better was snuffed out during COVID. I watched the true empathy gap between myself and those who couldn’t be bothered to do the bare minimum without whining like a 5-year-old throwing a tantrum. What optimism I had for a better life for my child vanished in 2020. I’m a shell of the person I used to be.

      I don’t know what the future holds, but if it gets much worse, I don’t know how I’ll survive.