Poll: Half of young Americans see better financial future

Jennifer Narvaez, 23, is among those who anticipates her financial future will be a bit brighter than that of her parents. Narvaez said she expects to have more opportunities as a college graduate to get a job and own a home than her parents, who grew up in Nicaragua and immigrated to the United States. The Miami resident holds an undergraduate degree in biology and is planning on attending medical school to become a cardiologist.

Narvaez is less certain about the prospects of the U.S. economy, particularly as the nation appears to be marching into a trade war with China.

“It’s a weird time,” she said. “I feel like it’s hard to predict what will happen because of the kind of administration we have.”

Alex Barner, 20, also felt optimistic that he might fare better than his mother, who had him at age 18 and raised him as a single mother. He is attending college in New Mexico and is considering a future career in business management.

While Barner is hopeful he will do well in life, he also has some concerns about the trajectory of the nation and its economy. Like Narvaez, he’s concerned by the trade policy of President Donald Trump’s administration.

Barner also said he feels politicians need to focus more on matters that affect people in the here and now, such as health care and student loan relief.

Respondents were divided about how they expect the nation’s economy will fare in the year ahead. About 29 per cent of young people expect the economy to improve, 30 per cent expect it will get worse and 41 anticipate it will stay the same. Similarly, 35 per cent of parents expect improvement, 27 per cent expect conditions to get worse and 38 per cent expect the economy to stay as is.

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The Youth Political Pulse poll was conducted Aug. 23 to Sept. 10 by the AP-NORC Center and MTV. The poll was conducted using NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. It includes 580 young people ages 15-26 and 591 parents of children in the same age group. The margin of sampling error for all young people is plus or minus 6.6 percentage points and for parents plus or minus 7.5 percentage points.

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Online:

AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research: http://www.apnorc.org

Sarah Skidmore Sell, The Associated Press

by Canadian Press

Poll: Half of young Americans see better financial future

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