A Lost Generation: Why We Have No Economic Future
There’s a quiet despair running through America’s young adults, and it isn’t melodrama—it’s math. The so-called “economic future” has been sold off, collateralized, and hollowed out, leaving behind a generation destined to work harder for less.
Stagnant Wages, Exploding Costs
For decades, wages have barely budged while housing, healthcare, and education costs have skyrocketed. A degree once seen as a ticket to the middle class now comes with decades of debt. Even with that degree, jobs are increasingly precarious—gig work, contract roles, no benefits, no security. The ladder upward has been kicked away, but the debt collectors still climb.
The Vanishing Middle Class
The American middle class was built on stable manufacturing, affordable housing, and union strength. Those anchors have eroded. Industries fled overseas, housing was turned into an investment class, and organized labor was dismantled. What’s left is a polarized economy: the asset-holding elite, and everyone else. Without assets, the young are permanently stuck renting—homes, cars, even basic security.
Climate, Automation, and the End of Certainty
As if structural inequality weren’t enough, looming threats compound the crisis. Climate change promises massive displacement, rising costs, and lost productivity. Automation and AI are swallowing jobs faster than new industries can replace them. For a generation already living paycheck to paycheck, the future is less about advancement and more about survival.
A Future Mortgaged
The “lost generation” isn’t lost because it made poor choices. It’s lost because its future was mortgaged by previous decades of short-term profit chasing, deregulation, and financialization. Wealth is hoarded, opportunity is rationed, and hope is treated like a luxury good.
Conclusion
There is no economic future under the current trajectory—only a treadmill where the speed keeps rising while the ground beneath gives way. The next generation doesn’t need pep talks or hashtags. It needs a new system, because this one has already declared them expendable.
