Current Events > American dream feels impossible for many young voters, who see no political fix

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For many young voters, the future doesn't feel quite so bright. Gen Z and millennial Americans are feeling increasingly demoralized about their economic prospects, and some say their concerns have gone unaddressed by elected officials.

In communities of all kinds, voters in their 20s and 30s are confronting a financial reality of rising costs, mounting debt and minimal wage growth. But how is this changing their political views?

It's a question that NPR put to readers. We received more than 1,100 submissions from across the political spectrum from almost every state in the U.S.

Young voters are united in disappointment
Many young Americans feel a collective sense of disillusionment in the political system, and respondents told NPR that their financial struggles are exacerbating that pain.

Their life goals are on hold for some indefinitely
Young people shared that one of the biggest drivers feeding into their sense of political frustration is the struggle to get ahead financially or even just stay afloat.

When asked what economic success looks like for them, respondents didn't want lavish mansions or high-priced sports cars. Instead, their ambitions were more modest, often centering on the need for financial stability. Yet even that felt out of reach for many.

Young Americans said goals like owning a home, starting a family or pursuing a dream job feel increasingly like a luxury rather than an achievable milestone. Financial concerns are forcing them to reframe what's possible and sometimes choose one goal over another.

Financial roadblocks standing in the way
Many are navigating a unique economic moment where both median home and rental prices, for example, have risen at a faster pace than wages for roughly two decades. People are also waiting longer to buy homes. The median age of a first-time homebuyer in 2024 stood at 38, 10 years older than in the early 1990s, according to the National Association of Realtors.

Despite losing faith in most politicians, populism resonates
Young Americans see very few politicians actively addressing their concerns around affordability, leading some to lose faith in the effectiveness of either major political party.

Many respondents returned to the same point: that they're most inspired by populist-style leaders who focus on disrupting the status quo. It's a message that young people say goes past political labels, pushing some to opposite poles on the ideological spectrum and leaving others feeling stuck in the middle.

Then stop voting for republicans, you fucking morons.

It's called the American Dream because you have to be asleep to believe it. - George Carlin

Young people have a right to be angry about what's happened in this country. For a couple of decades now living expenses, especially housing and healthcare, have been rising faster than wages.

There's a really easy political fix, actually. Add finance and investment to high school curriculum.

young voters

millennial Americans

There's a really easy political fix, actually. Add finance and investment to high school curriculum.

there's several political fixes that could happen but won't happen in america because they're viewed as socialism or government overreach to implement.

Do Americans still believe in revolution to solve their problems, if socialism and government solutions are off the table now?

There's a really easy political fix, actually. Add finance and investment to high school curriculum.

There's a really easy political fix, actually. Add finance and investment to high school curriculum.

Then stop voting for republicans, you fucking morons.

Voting Democrat just isn't enough, what's needed is getting involved and voting progressive in not just federal and state elections but municipal as well.

I think It's not. What happens if you have someone with $1 and another with $1000 double their gains? The person with 1000 gains a thousand and the person with one gets a dollar. The person with $1000 gains has consolidated more of their wealth relative to the person with $1. Do this several dozens / hundreds of times and the person with $1000 ends up having all of the money and the $1 person with crumbs.

If things continue, wealth will continue to accumulate upwards without more sophisticated wealth extraction from the top.

It's a matter of stages. What can you do RIGHT NOW, then you consider what you can do in the future. That being said, it is certainly true that part of the Democratic leadership took votes for granted; which turned out to be terrible in the face of the cult-like lockstep of Republicans and their plans for the country that have been in the making for 40+ years.