The American Dream optimistically involves the desire to improve society for the next generation. It’s like camping—leave things in better shape than you found them. For the first several generations of (white) Americans, this was a feasible dream. Many generations have been able to see their children live longer, have better careers and lives, and continue down a path of improvement that first-generation immigrants set out to achieve.
Now it’s time for the million-dollar question: are Millennials doing better than their parents? Unfortunately, no. The Millennial Generation is facing shorter lifespans than generations past, in part due to chronic health conditions, drug addiction and overdose, suicide, and alcohol poisoning. This decrease in lifespan also affects the Baby Boomers, though not as starkly. According to Bloomberg’s recap of actuarial studies in the US, “the life expectancy for sixty-five-year-olds is now six months shorter than in last year’s actuarial study.”3 It turns out that the Boomers, Gen-Xers, and Millennials are all on a downward trend as far as lifespan goes.
Taking Care of Our Own
In the face of declining life expectancies and increased healthcare demand, what’s a country to do? Aren’t we one of the most developed and prosperous nations in the world? Of course we are, so why are our people dying, chronically ill, and choosing between keeping food on the table and going to the doctor?
The Guardian ran an article online in July 2017, titled, “How Does the US Healthcare System Compare with Other Countries?” which explores just that—how our spending and behavior around healthcare compares with the rest of the world.4 In one heartbreaking graph, titled “Spending compared with life expectancy,” the caption states, “The US was comparable to other developed countries until the early ‘80s, when healthcare expenditures accelerated and life expectancy rates fell behind.” So, not only do we spend more than other countries on our medical care, we’re dying sooner too. While other developed countries like Iceland, Australia, Japan, Norway, Switzerland, and the UK show a gradual increase in healthcare spending over time, the US took a sharp turn and is off in outlier la-la land with its fingers in its ears.
The overall health of Americans is on a decline, which is a pretty big deal. As programs like Medicaid and Medicare face government cutbacks, older generations have less access to reliable healthcare. And as insurance prices increase in general, the rest of us may have to choose between maintaining insurance and keeping a roof over our heads.
The decrease in income compared to inflation has drastically moved the goalposts of this great American Dream. While former generations could put in a forty-year career and retire by age sixty-five with the expectation of a comfortable retirement (and even Social Security), the younger generations don’t have that same level of expectation. If we can barely pay rent, how are we supposed to save for retirement? Or a home? How can we afford to put our kids in day care while we go to work?
Procreation also brings healthcare expenses and spending on new-baby essentials. Millennials tend to delay parenthood, with research indicating that the average age of a first-time mother in the United States has risen from between twenty-one and twenty-two in 1970 to roughly twenty-six in 2014.5 There’s an obvious correlation to modern feminism and access to contraception, as well as comprehensive sex education. However, there’s also the fact that many Millennials just don’t have the money for kids until later in their lives. Having a child means time off work, or even leaving the workforce, which can cause a huge financial hit that simply wasn’t as big a factor in prior generations. Running a household on a single income in 2019 is possible for a select and privileged few, but certainly not as feasible as it was when our parents were born.
The New American Dream
Some journalists posit that the Millennials’ take on the American Dream is a reimagining, while some declare it dead entirely and completely unachievable (whether due to avocado consumption or things like housing costs).
Jason Notte of The Street writes, “Millennials have redefined the American Dream” in a May 2017 piece, continuing, “Millennials haven’t given up on the American Dream: their expectation of it has evolved.”6 While Millennials still see the classic debt-free retirement with a paid-off house as a staple of the American Dream, they’re also adding things like travel and living abroad to their proverbial bucket lists. But, Notte points out, Millennials don’t always have the cash on hand to fund their wanderlust.
Millennials definitely enjoy travel, on the whole, and even living in another country for a while. But it appears that they don’t tend to stay away for long. Millennials still feel strongly tied to the idea of “settling down” and aren’t likely to leave town to move somewhere brand new over and over again. Notte’s article gives the following rundown on Millennial moving habits:
“Currently, Millennials only envision themselves packing up and moving to a new city, state or country fewer than two more times in their lives. Most (68 percent) even say they would prefer to build a life in one community, rather than live and work in multiple geographies. At this stage, 43 percent of Millennials have bought their homes, while 75 percent of non-homeowners say they could be motivated to buy a house.”
—Jason Notte
We live in an age when it’s increasingly easy for young adults to live in another country for months at a time through study-abroad programs at high schools and universities. There are even volunteer organizations that allow you to live in another country for a summer or longer. Friends of mine have spent summers or semesters in Scotland, Ireland, Mexico, and France, and my sister has done a summer volunteer program in Nicaragua and spent a semester in Spain.
Perhaps the ability to so casually leave home and explore other places is a factor of our tech-savvy generational habits. We can Skype, FaceTime, or video chat with our friends and relatives across the globe in an instant, and social media makes it simple to stay in touch no matter where in the world you wander. With such accessible travel and so many places to explore, it’s no wonder our younger generations are finding new ways to embrace new cultures and experiences.
The American Dream: Now with 80 Percent More Gaslighting
On a side note, can we take a moment to acknowledge that the American Dream is a perfectly gift-wrapped example of victim-blaming? If your life sucks, it’s because you didn’t want it enough, didn’t hustle enough, didn’t do everything in your power to keep up with the Joneses. When the American Dream is out here saying, “I’m so easy to attain if you just try hard enough!” then it’s all too easy to heap the blame on the people whose lives are in shambles.
We also need to acknowledge that this belief lets us distance ourselves from people who have it worse. We tend to believe it can never happen to us, because we’re focused on the dream and making it happen. But most Americans are one paycheck away from financial ruin, don’t have savings, and are trapped in a cycle of debt. And this is normal in our society. The American Dream romanticizes living beyond your means while pretending everything is fine. It’s toxic denial, and it’s time to wake up.
Killing the American Dream
Millennials did not have a big generational board meeting and decide to screw up the idea of owning a home and retiring comfortably. That would be a very silly thing to do, in an attempt to get one over on The Man. Rather, greed has killed the American Dream. Sky-high tuition costs and student loan rates have killed the American Dream. Subprime mortgages have killed the American Dream. The tradition of systemic racism and sexism in America have killed the American Dream. Rising costs and lower wages have killed the American Dream.
And who, might I ask, has left these inequalities in their wake, waiting for us to pick up the pieces? Telling us to be grateful when we rightfully voice the truth? Carpeting over those beautiful hardwood floors? Our parents and grandparents, naturally.
The older generations get annoyed with Millennials because we’re forcing and driving change. Baby Boomer landlords, business owners, and bosses now must reevaluate