Nearly 80% of Americans think their children may end up with worse lives — up from around 40% who said the same thing 20 years ago
- Americans have lost confidence that their children will be better off than they are, according to a new poll.
- A collaboration between the Wall Street Journal and NORC, the poll underscored a pessimistic outlook on the US economy.
Americans' confidence that they are leaving a better world for their children is dwindling.
According to a new Wall Street Journal/NORC poll conducted this month, a majority of people believe their children's lives may be worse than their own. In a question posed to 1,019 respondents, 78% said they "do not feel confident" their children will be better off.
"No matter how much they increase your pay, everything else is going up," Kristy Morrow, who lives in Big Spring, Texas, told the Wall Street Journal. "I do fear that for the kids."
The survey underscored a feeling of economic pessimism in the US, with respondents indicating among other things that the current economy is poor, and that it will get worse.
The Wall Street Journal in collaboration with the National Opinion Research Center surveyed Americans on their thoughts about the economy from March 1-13 — as negative reports on inflation and the job market intersected with the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank.
Results also showed new anxieties about the job market — widely regarded as strong last year — as well as worries over inflation, financial future, and economic stability.
Respondents' outlook on their children's futures was worse in this year's survey than any other year since its start in 1990, the Wall Street Journal reported.
The poll compounds other recent findings — including one showing Americans' financial standing has largely dwindled in the last year — indicating Americans have lost hope in the US economy.
"That strikes me as something that's kind of an intractable level of pessimism," Jennifer Benz, vice president of public affairs and media research at NORC, told the Journal.