This article is part of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/introducing-upstream-a-lifestyle-and-culture-section-of-the-daily-wire" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Upstream,</a> The Daily Wire’s new home for culture and lifestyle. Real human insight and human stories — from our featured writers to you.
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It’s a common conversation among millennial parents, so common that it isn’t worth remarking on beyond the brief acknowledgement of shared pain. A writer colleague on a trip together broke the ice with a mention.
“Yes, we’ve got three at home, and my husband has them; he’s very capable. Grandma is there, too,” she said with a long sigh. “She actually makes things harder. I just wish she could, you know, help? I don’t get it. She always wanted grandkids, she always told me she wants grandkids, but now it’s like, ‘It’s Tuesday. I have pilates.’”
The Baby Boomer generation is the greatest generation in only one measure: in terms of the redistribution of wealth to itself. No other American generation comes close, thanks to the timing of the Great Society, the expansion of old-age benefits, the timing of Wall Street booms, and a real estate market Boomers continue to dominate. They are the largest group of homeowners by far, despite being just 20% of the population; in 2025, they were also the largest group of home buyers, typically with cash. Empty nest boomers own <a href="https://www.redfin.com/news/empty-nest-large-homes-2026/">a third</a> of all three-bedroom homes in America. They own double the percentage of homes millennials do, and according to a 2025 <a href="https://finance.yahoo.com/news/61-boomers-never-plan-sell-123100288.html">survey</a>, 61% of boomer homeowners say they never plan to sell their homes.
Those homes are often the epicenter of family moves. Because millennials rent when their parents bought, they are the ones who have to move when they have kids, proximity to grandma and grandpa being a presumed benefit offering free childcare and occasional help. Three-quarters of millennials say it’s important to live near their parents after having kids, and depending on the survey, approximately a third say they’ve relocated or already made a point of living near their parents because of the kid factor. But when it comes to delivering on that help, Boomers are sorely lacking: Just one out of five millennial parents says parents help with regular childcare. The anecdotes are ubiquitous, and they are not flattering.
“We moved 15 minutes away from my parents after we had our second,” a friend tells me. “Since we had a boy, I thought my dad would want to spend time with him. We’ve lived here a year, and he’s seen him four times. He held him once.”
The Boomer drive-by seems to be the most common interaction: a momentary disruptive pause in the day when kids are taken to do some activity that could conceivably give you enough time to run a few errands, get the car serviced, or spend actual time picking out a steak. But it turns out that something happens, or the kids were rowdy, or grandpa forgot he has to do something, and they’re back on your doorstep 45 minutes later, somehow still hungry. Or there’s one level worse: the drive-by for social media, where grandma is just in the house long enough to snap a picture for her friends on The Facebook.
“My brother had kids 10 years before I did, and he got ‘grandma weekends,’ the kids staying over at their house for two to three days,” another friend tells me. “I didn’t get married till a decade later, and I’m lucky to get ‘grandma lunch.’ She’s in Europe for a month. He played golf at Spyglass; I’m lucky to get a Costco run in.”
Anecdote isn&#8217;t the plural of data, but the conversation around this topic has been widespread and only goes in one direction: toward Grandboomers who are consistently more interested in fun than in<a href="https://www.foxnews.com/media/millennials-feel-abandoned-parents-available-help-raise-grandkids-busy"> helping out</a> with the grandbabies. It&#8217;s fine if the elders are just deciding that taking care of a toddler isn&#8217;t &#8220;living their best life,&#8221; but they can&#8217;t expect to escape criticism for it. As one beleaguered mom whose complaints went viral<a href="https://www.newsweek.com/millennials-thinks-boomers-worst-grandparents-ever-2068439"> told</a> Newsweek last year, &#8220;It definitely triggered guilty boomers who were irritated and said they&#8217;re not going to raise our kids, but that&#8217;s not what we&#8217;re asking for. I have gotten so many messages from millennials saying they felt heard and less alone. They thought it was only their issue, and they had no idea that others dealt with this.&#8221; Believe me, if you talk to your fellow millennial parents, you absolutely know.
You can ascribe this social trend to any Boomer aspect of your choosing: permanent main character syndrome, an abiding aversion to any reminder of their aging nature, belief that they “did their time” changing diapers and shouldn’t have to do another run, or just a rejection of the parenting styles of millennials as being too demanding, too helicopter for their tastes. But it is an undeniable trend, one that virtually every millennial parent knows all too well.
“My mom changed our diapers growing up, and she says she’s done enough for her life,” yet another friend tells me. “But it sure would be nice if she was willing to do it just for one Friday a month.”
You can dismiss this development as just a generation that has lived longer enjoying life to the fullest. You can describe it as irrelevant because millennials should figure out ways to pay for childcare and take care of it themselves. But the hard fact is that an underlying reason for the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/people-arent-having-kids-and-one-reason-keeps-coming-up">decline in American population</a> that we see so regularly reported, year after year, is this Boomer attitude.
It is a simple binary: In the absence of date nights, without a break from the kids, millennial parents simply do not have time to make more kids. If that’s something America wants to change, it’s going to have to bring back shame for our elders. Help your kids, or get used to fewer grandkids. You&#8217;re the product of a Baby Boom, but you seem completely uninterested in creating another one. That’s the reality. Change starts with you.

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America’s Birth Rate Problem Might Start At Grandma’s House

Birth Rates

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Upstream

Socialism is back. We see it with the election of Zohran Mamdani as Mayor of New York. We also see it in polling from the <a href="https://www.cato.org/blog/81-say-they-cant-afford-pay-higher-taxes-next-year">Cato Institute</a> that suggests many young Americans view socialism favorably: “Among Americans under 30, 62 percent feel favorable toward socialism…”
Beyond the obvious economic and political dangers of socialism, one component receives relatively little attention: the culture of work.
People who live and work in socialist societies often report being far less satisfied and motivated than those who work in relatively free markets. When a nation’s government controls businesses, they lose a competitive advantage. As a result, employees who derive dignity from achievement and contribution experience disappointment.
At the same time, people uninterested in hard work are more likely to be coddled and protected. This often perpetuates an environment of mediocrity.
Talk to any driven person who has ever worked in a socialist country, or in an industry controlled by government regulation, and you’ll hear this sentiment. Hard work is not rewarded. Mediocre employees can’t be let go. Innovation is harder to sustain. Work becomes a matter of showing up, biding your time, and accepting that upward mobility is not possible.
I work with a young man who took great risks to escape a socialist country, and I have other colleagues who have lived in socialist countries. Their experiences convey a muted sense of hope that most people have about their employment.
Anecdotes aren’t proof, but they often show you what certain systems tend to produce. A vivid lesson about the dangers of socialism on the culture of work comes from a surprising source: people who have worked in “socialist-like” industries that exist within free markets.
When traveling for business, I’ve spoken to many flight attendants about their work experiences. The vast majority work in heavily unionized environments, and many have told me there is little incentive to do their job well other than their intrinsic desire to make people happy. Their careers are determined by seniority, and chronically underperforming colleagues are tolerated, rarely addressed, and almost never dismissed.
The fantastic flight attendants I met can’t be recruited by competitors — or even move to airlines that pay more or treat employees better — because they’d have to start over at the back of the seniority line. So the next time you experience great service on a flight, show some respect knowing they are often doing what they do out of love for others, not because they are rewarded.
The purpose of work should be to give people the freedom to provide for their families, use the gifts that God has given them, and experience the dignity of serving others well. When leaders organize work with these purposes, they give individuals incentive to tap into their best potential.
However, when organizations tolerate poor performance and remove the extrinsic rewards of achievement, they do a terrible disservice to the dignity of customers and employees alike. It’s important to understand that even underperforming employees lose dignity in socialist societies and organizations as they are prevented from experiencing the tough love necessary to become the best versions of themselves.
This is the real tragedy of socialist workplaces: people rarely become the best versions of themselves. In other words, they settle.
Despite all of this being true, why do large numbers of Americans still say they have a positive view of socialism? I believe there are three reasons.
First, many have never really experienced the impact of socialism. To them, socialism is merely a theory that involves more sharing and kindness. For example, according to actress Amanda Seyfried, socialism means <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/media/actress-amanda-seyfried-calls-socialism-gorgeous-idea">“taking care of each other.”</a>
Second, many people who say they like socialism already work in socialist organizations and have settled. They are accustomed to roles where competition is muted, and pay and advancement are constrained by rules, not results.
Finally, too many Americans work in very large organizations that mimic some aspects of socialism via crony capitalism and corporate welfare. Their industries are protected by lobbyists and elected officials who thwart authentic capitalism.
When addressing the false hope of socialism, we must not attempt to split the difference. In fact, we must advocate for more competition in all industries, as well as for real consequences for people who consistently underperform. Additionally, we must push for the enforcement of antitrust laws that prevent dangerous monopolies and oligopolies.
Perhaps most important of all, America must support one of the best sources of employment, dignity, and innovation in our society: small businesses. These small companies, where most Americans work, still have great incentives to find new ways to please customers and to attract and retain great employees. But in socialist countries, there is less capital and fewer incentives for entrepreneurs to take risks and start small businesses.
If America truly wants to defend human dignity, we can’t romanticize systems that smother the very drive that makes people come alive. Socialism doesn’t just weaken economies; it weakens people. America doesn’t need more managed mediocrity. It needs the freedom that lets workers, and the work itself, succeed.
* * *
Pat Lencioni is one of the founders of The Table Group, a pioneer of the organizational health movement, and the creator of <a href="https://www.workinggenius.com/about?gad_source=1&amp;gad_campaignid=21520445429&amp;gbraid=0AAAAAD4dDHRyei0FFfuRCa63VdPO11RDk&amp;gclid=CjwKCAjwlaTGBhANEiwAoRgXBSUpr89SSKKSTeoiFk-LdSAKpBsTFlfYYrEIm9MHWtUL1HjC7imP1RoC65MQAvD_BwE"> The Working Genius</a>, which helps leaders understand workplace efficiency. He is the bestselling author of “The Five Dysfunctions of a Team,” as well as 12 other books, which have sold over 10 million copies and been translated into more than 30 languages.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Mamdani Takes Reins Of New York City After Historic Election Win

Why So Many Americans Romanticize Socialism — And Why They’re Wrong

Communism

Democratic Socialism

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Gen Z

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Zohran Mamdani

One of the big questions that has plagued American politics for the last decade and a half is: What the hell is going on?
In order to understand what the hell is going on, I think we need to understand the transformation that happened around 2014.
In 2012, we had what I consider to be the most consequential election of my lifetime, the one that everybody forgets. That&#8217;s the one that I think was really important. Why?
Because in 2008, Barack Obama, America&#8217;s first black president, was elected on the platform of unifying Americans around race. Racial optimism in the country was at an all-time high, according to the polling data.
And then, in 2012, Barack Obama, who had been a very progressive and left-wing president, who had pushed Obamacare through, lost popularity. So he decided that the best way to win reelection was not to broadcast a unifying message, but to divide Americans by race and then to cobble together enough racial coalitions in order to win a victory. He defeated Mitt Romney, the most milquetoast candidate in the history of American politics, in what was a fairly solid victory. 
And that seemed to change everything, because by 2014, race relations in the United States were on the decline. Barack Obama — who had made a lot of promises to a lot of people — needed to fulfill those promises, particularly on issues of race.
He claimed Trayvon Martin could have been his son. That was a racial claim because what he was saying was that any black person would have been subjected to the same treatment as Trayvon Martin, that circumstances did not matter. He said the same thing with regard to Ferguson, Missouri, where he claimed that nobody would make up the kinds of experiences that Michael Brown had undergone.
Of course, it turned out that in Ferguson, Missouri, Michael Brown&#8217;s acolytes, people who were pseudo-witnesses, actually did make up the story about Michael Brown claiming that he had raised his hands: Hands up, don&#8217;t shoot! and all of the rest.
Thus, by 2014, race relations were on a steep decline in the United States, and have never recovered.
That is because so much of this attitude is racially divisive. The attitude was then baked into American politics.
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/ep-2336-how-white-men-became-the-targets-of-america-s-most-powerful-institutions?elementPosition=5&amp;row=2&amp;rowHeadline=Latest+Episodes&amp;rowType=Horizontal+Show+Episodes+Carousel"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-large wp-image-974957 aligncenter" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-1024x171.webp" alt="DailyWire+" width="1024" height="171" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-1024x171.webp 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-300x50.webp 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-768x128.webp 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-1536x256.webp 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-2048x341.webp 2048w" sizes=" (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></a>
There&#8217;s a fascinating and important <a href="https://www.compactmag.com/article/the-lost-generation/">piece</a> in Compact magazine by Jacob Savage, talking about the realities of hiring and firing in the elite institutions of the United States, which became explicitly race-based around 2014.
He writes: 
<blockquote>The doors seemed to close everywhere and all at once. In 2011, the year I moved to Los Angeles, white men were 48 percent of lower-level TV writers; by 2024, they accounted for just 11.9 percent. The Atlantic’s editorial staff went from 53 percent male and 89 percent white in 2013 to 36 percent male and 66 percent white in 2024. White men fell from 39 percent of tenure-track positions in the humanities at Harvard in 2014 to 18 percent in 2023. In retrospect, 2014 was the hinge, the year DEI became institutionalized across American life. </blockquote>
There are people who are DEI advocates who will claim that this is the natural state of things, that white people were being artificially elevated. And when that ended, thanks to DEI, white people fell out of positions of power. 
But the reality is the opposite: America had been, for at least a couple of generations, generally a meritocracy, particularly on issues of race. For example, when you go back to how hiring was done in TV studios, some of the most Left-leaning areas in American life in 2011, it wasn&#8217;t that the heads of the writers&#8217; room were selecting for white people; it was that they were selecting for the funniest people. 
And then they decided to radically shift how they did hiring and firing, thus dispossessing people of the positions that they had earned in favor of other people based on group characteristics.
I&#8217;m 41. People of my generation were brought up in the 1990s, and we were taught from a very, very early age that Martin Luther King Jr.&#8217;s exhortation to judge people by the content of their character, not the color of their skin, was morally correct.
That’s because it is morally correct.
And then an entire cadre of elite institutional professionals decided not to do that anymore. Not only that, they decided, in many cases, that the majority of potential employees in a potential applicant pool were bad because of the immutable characteristics, the color of their skin, or their maleness. The idea was that these people were somehow lesser, that they had participated in systemic discrimination, and even if they themselves were not racist, the system was racist and thus these people had to be dispossessed. 
They took the most tolerant cohort of people, people who had been trained in the idea of a colorblind meritocracy, and told them that colorblind meritocracy was for them, but it wasn&#8217;t for anyone else. These people were told that they should continue to adhere to an idea of colorblind meritocracy because it was morally correct, but they were the beneficiaries of racialist systems, and therefore, they had to pay.
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That is unsustainable. There&#8217;s one system for everyone. And if you are told that colorblind meritocracy is something that you should morally accept — which is true — and then you are told it doesn&#8217;t apply to you, it only applies to everyone else, you are likely to get a generation of people who start to reject a colorblind meritocracy and start to look at race relations as a zero sum game rather than an additive bonus.
They start to see everything as a question of who gets the job based on immutable characteristics, and start to view themselves as a put-upon identity group, because they are a put-upon identity group. If a group is determined to be lesser on the basis of immutable characteristics, they&#8217;re going to start seeing themselves in identitarian ways.
That doesn&#8217;t mean that they are right to do so. It does mean, however, that the only way to destroy all of this, this new identitarian moment we are living in, where there’s an identitarianism of the Left that adheres to the idea that group identity is really, really good except if you&#8217;re talking about white Christian men, and an identitarian Right that is formed in counter-response that says, “Fine, you want to play that game? We&#8217;ll play that game, too,” is to go back to a system that we were all taught as kids, and that was natural to us: Colorblind meritocracy.
Colorblind meritocracy is good. It is right.
Why?
Because meritocracy is the only system of human relations ever devised that has positive externalities. When the people who are best at the job, get the job, you get greater efficiency, you get better job performance, you get better innovation, better products.
People are able to expend their best abilities to the benefit of everyone else.
Every other system, every other anti-meritocratic system has negative externalities. They help the people who are inside the system and hurt the people who are outside the system.
Meritocracy benefits everyone because even if you didn&#8217;t get the job — let’s say you lost the job to a person who is better qualified than you, better at the job than you — that means that the person who filled the job is going to perform the job better than you would have, and so that company will do better. They will perform better, the prices will be better, and the products will be better.
Moreover, you will end up in a job where you are most meritorious.
If you want a happier human society, meritocracy is the way.
We were told by the leftists that meritocracy is inherently bad. Why? Because people looked at the outcome numbers and they judged for themselves that if outcomes were not equal, the system was unequal and bad.
But if you don&#8217;t use meritocracy, then you have to prejudge. Either you are going to judge a system based on the effect of the system, or you&#8217;re going to prejudge a system based on your perception of fairness between groups.
There is nothing just or fair about the idea that a person should be hampered in their capacity to succeed because of their immutable characteristics.
That is just wrong.
Grievance-based politics need to end. Yes, white male American millennials, Christians do have reason for grievance.
But the solution to that grievance is meritocracy. It is not, in fact, reversed grievance. Otherwise, we&#8217;re just going to ping-pong between grievances. It will become a question of who grabs the government gun and crams down their preferred solution.
That is not what America was built on.
And it is not what is going to cause America to succeed.
The negative externalities of the DEI system have been felt everywhere from the social sphere to the job sphere to the governmental sphere. And that spiral will keep on swirling in the drain unless we reverse it and go back to what we all taught our kids and what we were taught as kids: to treat every individual human being as an individual, and not on the basis of some sort of immutable characteristic.
What happened over the course of the last decade was a sin against decency, and the fact that so many people are still invested in that sin, or who now want to pursue the same sin, but with a different color at the top, will not make for a successful America.

Car engine assembly, workers adjusting engine block valve

Renewing The American Merit Ideal

Bias

Diversity Equity and Inclusion (DEI)

Legacy Media

Opinion

Racism

White Men

Forty percent of American voters believe AI will make achieving the American Dream even harder to reach. That is more than double the 16% of voters who see AI as helpful. And this isn’t abstract technophobia. This is a window into the profound anxiety many feel about economic security in an era when the traditional pathways to prosperity already seem increasingly out of reach.
A recent Rainey Center <a href="https://www.raineycenter.org/news/new-poll-voters-overwhelmingly-support-domestic-energy-independence-and-data-security">national poll of 2,011</a> likely voters reveals a pervasive pessimism about artificial intelligence (AI), along with deeper concerns about a rigged system. 
When asked about the future, 39% of respondents said AI makes them more pessimistic, compared to 20% who said it makes them more optimistic.
Remarkably, this fear is bipartisan.
Democrats, Republicans, and Independents all worry that technological disruption will compound rather than solve the challenges facing American families.
Yet, there’s reason for hope. One in five Americans sees AI’s potential to improve their economic prospects, and nearly a quarter believe it will make no difference to achieving the American Dream. These voters recognize what policymakers must internalize: AI could dramatically increase productivity, create new industries, improve healthcare outcomes, and free workers from dangerous or repetitive tasks.
The technology itself, however, isn’t the enemy. The question is whether we’ll ensure its benefits are broadly shared rather than narrowly concentrated. History shows that technological revolutions can lift entire societies when paired with smart policy. The challenge is making that happen deliberately rather than hoping it occurs by accident.
This AI anxiety doesn’t exist in a vacuum. It sits atop a foundation of economic stress and fading opportunity, particularly for younger generations. While 77% of the Silent Generation and 51% of Baby Boomers feel their lives are or were better than their parents’, only 31% of Millennials and 35% of Gen Z share this optimism. When we asked directly whether the American Dream has become more or less attainable over the past decade, an overwhelming 64% said less attainable, with one-third calling it “much less attainable.”
<div id="attachment_984319" style="width: 586px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-984319" class="size-large wp-image-984319" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/MixCollage-10-Oct-2025-11-46-AM-3234-576x576.jpg" alt="Credit: Joseph Rainey Center for Public Policy" width="576" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/MixCollage-10-Oct-2025-11-46-AM-3234-576x576.jpg 576w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/MixCollage-10-Oct-2025-11-46-AM-3234-300x300.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/MixCollage-10-Oct-2025-11-46-AM-3234-150x150.jpg 150w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/MixCollage-10-Oct-2025-11-46-AM-3234-768x768.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/MixCollage-10-Oct-2025-11-46-AM-3234-1536x1536.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/MixCollage-10-Oct-2025-11-46-AM-3234-2048x2048.jpg 2048w" sizes=" (max-width: 576px) 100vw, 576px" />Credit: Joseph Rainey Center for Public Policy</div>
The fear isn’t that AI will create a different future — voters fear that AI will accelerate trends already making life harder. Young Americans today face a housing market disconnected from wage growth, with 21% of Gen Z citing housing as a top national challenge compared to just 6% of Boomers. They’re burdened by education debt that earlier generations never faced. And now they’re being told that automation and AI may disrupt the very jobs they’re counting on to build their economic security.
The American Dream itself remains remarkably consistent: financial stability and homeownership top the list across all demographics. But the gap between aspiration and reality has never been wider. Only 22% of voters believe they’ve achieved the American Dream, while 36% feel it’s completely out of reach. Among Millennials, 40% believe the dream is unattainable for them.
This crisis of faith in American opportunity has political consequences. While voters give Republicans a slight edge over Democrats (39% to 33%) on supporting the American Dream, a striking 28% believe neither party is aligned with this goal. When nearly one in three Americans see no champion for their economic aspirations, we face a dangerous void in our politics.
The economy (34%) and inflation (29%) dominate voter concerns, bread-and-butter issues that AI anxiety amplifies rather than replaces. People aren’t worried about robot overlords; they’re worried about paying the mortgage, affording healthcare, and whether their children will have opportunities they did not.
Technology has always disrupted labor markets, but past disruptions occurred when basic economic mobility still functioned for most Americans. Today, AI arrives at a moment when millions already doubt that the system works for them. That timing matters enormously.
We need policies that will address both immediate economic pressures and longer-term technological change. Housing affordability, education access, and ensuring that economic growth translates into broadly shared prosperity aren’t separate from the AI question. They’re the foundation that determines whether technological change lifts us up or leaves us behind.
The American Dream isn’t dead, but it’s under siege from multiple directions. The question is whether we’ll recognize the urgency before another generation loses faith entirely.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​
* * *
Sarah E. Hunt is President of the Joseph Rainey Center for Public Policy, a think tank and leadership community based in Washington, D.C.
Amelia Powers Gardner is a Utah County Commissioner and National Chair of the Leadership Alliance for a More Perfect Union (LAMP), a national program cultivating the next generation of conservative leaders.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.
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Cinematic Shot of a Father Holding His Small Daughter of His Shoulders, Helping Her to Raise the United States of America Flag to Celebrate a National Fourth of July Holiday at Their House.

New Poll: Voters Fear AI Will Make The American Dream Even Harder To Reach

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Generation Z&#8217;s efforts to be financially independent are slowed by their mounting personal debt, a problem that appears only to be getting worse for the youngest adults.
Gen Z young adults in their early to mid-20s, most of whom have just entered the workforce or are trying to do so, are plagued by stubbornly low wages and record inflation over the past few years, pushing them into debt, The Wall Street Journal <a href="https://www.wsj.com/personal-finance/gen-z-credit-card-debt-inflation-2f2f927e" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a>. Those born between 1997 and 2012 are generally considered to be part of Generation Z.
Many turn to credit cards just to cover the basics like food and rent.
For young adults 22 to 24, the average credit card balance was $2,834 in the last quarter of 2023, according to credit-reporting agency TransUnion. Back in 2013, the average balance for this group was only $2,248, adjusted for inflation.
Rent is likely the main driver of young people&#8217;s climbing debt. It is now <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/its-now-often-cheaper-to-rent-than-buy-property#">cheaper</a> to rent than to buy property.
Thanks to rising housing prices and mortgage rates, renting a two-bedroom residence is cheaper than buying that property for about 89% of Americans, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20231128140139/https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/2023/11/28/is-it-cheaper-to-rent-or-buy-property" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according</a> to a November analysis by The Economist.
In March, the median rent in the U.S. was $1,987, up nearly 22% compared to the past four years, <a href="https://www.rent.com/research/average-rent-price-report/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according</a> to Rent, an online rental marketplace that targets young adults.
Meanwhile, wages have not increased nearly that much.
Last year, the median annual wage for recent college graduates was $60,000, not much higher than $58,858 in 2020, <a href="https://www.wsj.com/personal-finance/gen-z-credit-card-debt-inflation-2f2f927e" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according</a> to Federal Reserve of New York data.
Meanwhile, after the pandemic, credit card companies made it easier for people to get credit cards. This led to more Gen Z young adults opening accounts — they were more likely to have at least one credit card compared with millennials a decade ago, according to data from TransUnion.
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During the pandemic, many people&#8217;s credit scores, including Gen Z&#8217;s, rose as stimulus checks hit bank accounts and many places to spend money remained temporarily shuttered. However, rising interest rates have driven down both Gen Z&#8217;s and millennials&#8217; credit scores since the pandemic.
Student debt is another huge debt driver among today&#8217;s young adults. Many leftist loan holders demand taxpayers foot the bill for their loan forgiveness. At the same time, critics blame former students for taking on an unreasonable amount of debt at 18, even though, in many cases, their parents assured them that it was a good investment and did not predict the soaring inflation of the last few years.
This confluence of financial stressors is causing young people to delay marriage, having children, and homeownership until they can support themselves, not to mention dependents.

Financial stress

Gen Z Watching Their Debt Climb Amid Soaring Rent, Food Prices

Debt Forgiveness

Generation Z

U.S.

Generation Z and younger millennials have the misfortune of being ready to buy a home amid a prohibitively expensive housing market.
As the youngest generation of adults looks to buy their first home, they&#8217;re finding it&#8217;s often cheaper to just keep renting than to invest in a mortgage right now.
Some are waiting out the unwelcoming housing market with a seemingly endless cycle of rent payments, but some are biting the bullet and purchasing now.
&#8220;We bought so our money wouldn&#8217;t go to someone else&#8217;s mortgage,&#8221; a Gen Z homeowner and new mother of a baby boy in Virginia told The Daily Wire.
She and her husband wanted to own land, she said. They plan on putting a few extra thousand dollars toward the principal of their mortgage every year, and they also invested in a larger down payment to get a lower fixed interest rate.
&#8220;There are ways to manipulate the system, but again, you usually need some money up front to do so,&#8221; she said.
She added that there is &#8220;a lot of ignorance&#8221; among young home buyers.
&#8220;Every young homeowner I have spoken to looks like a deer in the headlights when I mention how crazy it is that your interest rate can end up costing you at least double the cost of the house across 30 years,&#8221; she said. &#8220;And most people don&#8217;t realize they are paying mostly interest during the early mortgage years and the bulk of the principal later on. Works great for the loaners.&#8221;
Despite the challenges, there have been big upsides to owning a home, she said.
&#8220;Homeownership has made us feel unrestricted in our homemaking and privacy,&#8221; the mom said.
A Gen Z man who is getting married this summer in the Washington, D.C., area said he is planning to wait a year or two before buying a house. His fiancée, a younger millennial already owns a condo, and they plan to hang onto that property as the value goes up, although they hope to move into a second home once they have their first child.
&#8220;A medium to large-sized house is pretty much guaranteed to be a million bucks,&#8221; he told The Daily Wire. &#8220;The &#8216;350k or lower&#8217; dream is kind of out the window &#8230; After a quick glance at the market a couple months ago, it looks like the expectation is 700k or more, and that&#8217;s before all that yucky interest.&#8221;
Home prices <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2024/04/04/housing-affordability-crisis-states-00150463#:~:text=Income%20Housing%20Coalition.-,Home%20prices%20are%20up%2047%20percent%20since%20January%202020%2C%20and,and%20fewer%20people%20over%20time." target="_blank" rel="noopener">are up</a> 47% since the beginning of 2020, while rent is up more than 20%. Homelessness has spiked as well, rising 12% in 2022, <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2024/04/04/housing-affordability-crisis-states-00150463#:~:text=Income%20Housing%20Coalition.-,Home%20prices%20are%20up%2047%20percent%20since%20January%202020%2C%20and,and%20fewer%20people%20over%20time." target="_blank" rel="noopener">according</a> to data from the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Renting a two-bedroom residence is now actually cheaper than buying that property for about 89% of Americans, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20231128140139/https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/2023/11/28/is-it-cheaper-to-rent-or-buy-property" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according</a> to a November analysis by The Economist.
Back in 2020, that was true for only 16% of Americans.
Meanwhile, the housing crash that many potential home buyers <a href="https://www.inman.com/2023/11/28/35-of-americans-hope-the-housing-market-will-crash-in-2024/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">hoped</a> for does not look likely to happen. In November, nearly half of Americans, 44% said they thought the housing market could crash in the next year, according to a LendingTree consumer survey. Economists say they do not expect a housing crash either this year or even in 2025.
In fact, house prices are expected to keep rising as much as 4.1% this year, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/personal-finance/housing-market-predictions-2024" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according</a> to the Mortgage Bankers Association. Mortgage prices are expected to dip but not by much, and rent prices will likely remain about the same due to a glut of newly built apartment buildings with low demand.
Nevertheless, the tough market has not stopped millennials and even some Gen Z-ers from buying homes, perhaps simply because they are fed up with waiting for the market to turn in their favor.
About 38% of all home buyers were millennials last year, <a href="https://www.nar.realtor/research-and-statistics/research-reports/home-buyer-and-seller-generational-trends" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according</a> to a report from the National Association of Realtors, up from 28% in the previous year. Among younger millennials ages 25 to 33, 75% were buying a home for the first time.
The younger Gen Z buyers ages 18 to 24 made up only 3% of home buyers last year, showcasing both the difficulty of breaking into the housing market at a young age as well as the tendency of today&#8217;s young adults to wait before tying themselves down to one property.
Baby Boomers, the wealthiest generation is also contributing to the housing shortage by staying put in their current homes, reluctant to lose the lower mortgage rates they locked in during less expensive years. Previously, older generations would typically move into smaller homes as they aged, freeing up inventory for younger families, but nearly 40% of Boomers have lived in their home for at least 20 years, <a href="https://www.foxbusiness.com/economy/blame-baby-boomers-housing-shortage-redfin-says" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according</a> to Redfin.
This shortage is causing any property that does go on the market to sell quickly at very high prices, often above the asking price.
Despite the daunting circumstances, some younger buyers remain optimistic, although they have adjusted their expectations.
The engaged Gen Z-er said he remains hopeful that he and his fiancée will find something they both love.
&#8220;I basically just want a three-bedroom house with a large backyard and some quiet. It exists, but it&#8217;s just a lot more than I thought it was,&#8221; he said. &#8220;My plan is to put a really big down payment on whatever we get.&#8221;

Home for sale with real estate sign

Gen Z, Young Millennials Debate Endless Rent Or Sky-High Mortgages

Inflation

Readers Pass

A popular Florida realtor explained how hard it has become for today&#8217;s younger generation to live a middle class lifestyle, declaring that the old American dream no longer exists.
Freddie Smith, an Orlando realtor with a popular TikTok <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@fmsmith319" target="_blank" rel="noopener">account</a> where he posts about the financial struggles of millennials and Generation Z to his 422,000 followers, said young people need a much higher salary than their parents did to live the same lifestyle.
&#8220;A lot of us grew up middle class, and we watched what middle class was in the 80s and 90s as millennials. And nowadays, what has moved the goalpost more than anything is the housing market,&#8221; Smith <a href="https://www.foxbusiness.com/economy/the-old-american-dream-died-realtor-details-salary-needed-to-buy-a-home-afford-a-middle-class-life-in-2024" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told</a> Fox News this week.
Smith explained that younger Americans trying to start their lives are often priced out of the housing market.
&#8220;I think most of us in America would define the middle class as somebody who can work a 40-hour-a-week career and can have the income to purchase the average home in America,&#8221; Smith said.
Smith said that a salary as low as $60,000 would have been enough to qualify to buy a home just a few years ago. Now though, the average house price sits around $400,000 or more, meaning people have to make about $120,000 even just to qualify and have a chance at buying a normal house.
Another issue for young people is the crippling debt many face such as student loans, which can be more than $1,000 a month.
&#8220;The millennials, they&#8217;re the pinched generation where college essentially stopped working for most. The debt piled up, and the old American dream died, and we got left holding the bag,&#8221; Smith said.
Besides higher rent costs eating up 30% or 40% of people&#8217;s incomes and student loans taking even more, having children can entail thousands a month for daycare if both parents need to work.
All of these factors make it difficult for young adults to save for a down payment on a home, qualify for a home, and even make monthly mortgage payments after they purchase one, not to mention eventually paying off their home.
Spiking inflation has also contributed to the cost of living woes, particularly for young people who are dealing with these extra expenses.
&#8220;If you are someone who bought a house before 2020 and you have it paid off or you have a 3% interest rate, you are not burdened by the housing costs like the 2024 adults are now,&#8221; Smith said.
As of September, the median home price in the country was $412,000, <a href="https://www.forbes.com/advisor/mortgages/real-estate/median-home-prices-by-state/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according</a> to Redfin, a 2% increase over 2022.
In California, the median home price was much higher at $787,000 back in the fall.

For sale by owner sign hangs in front of Long Island house

‘Old American Dream Died’: Realtor Describes How Millennials, Gen Z Struggle To Be Middle Class

'Old American Dream Died': Realtor Describes How Millennials, Gen Z Struggle To Be Middle Class

Asked to name the most pressing problem confronting the American family, many conservatives would say its breakdown since the advent of the welfare state. That’s a valid answer, but a larger problem is looming today: a lack of family formation. Fewer Americans are getting married and having children.
Birth rates began to plummet with the generational shift from Gen X (born 1965-1979) to Millennials (born 1980-1994), according to professor of psychology Jean M. Twenge’s Generations: The Real Differences Between Gen Z, Millennials, Gen X, Boomers, and Silents—and What They Mean for America’s Future. Fertility had been rising prior to the Great Recession of 2008, <a href="https://nam04.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.pewtrusts.org%2Fen%2Fresearch-and-analysis%2Fissue-briefs%2F2022%2F12%2Fthe-long-term-decline-in-fertility-and-what-it-means-for-state-budgets&amp;data=05%7C01%7CEvan.Myers%40heritage.org%7Cef3d8f9425b54ea0118608db9d9f888f%7Ccbd93b4867ea46759ee84178b273204a%7C0%7C0%7C638277080765269129%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&amp;sdata=4LXPnmtQjXnYrzqXlRijEk9VUa%2F35p7dtoPYPit3dso%3D&amp;reserved=0" target="_blank" rel="noopener">a recent Pew report notes</a>, but it fell off sharply after that, and has yet to recover.
In the <a href="https://nam04.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.birthgap.org%2Ffeed&amp;data=05%7C01%7CEvan.Myers%40heritage.org%7Cef3d8f9425b54ea0118608db9d9f888f%7Ccbd93b4867ea46759ee84178b273204a%7C0%7C0%7C638277080765581656%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&amp;sdata=M0gvJrxtPJ4GHCn6AuskM1v3sEtIowCC1bOoi89Vqag%3D&amp;reserved=0" target="_blank" rel="noopener">recent documentary</a>, “Birthgap,” data scientist Stephen J. Shaw notes that the primary driver behind falling birthrates is not that mothers are having fewer children, but that the number of women who have no children has risen sharply. Most of these women, about 80%, wanted children but either never found a partner or did not do so in time to have children. They were caught unawares, had been poorly educated about female fertility, and thought they had more time.
Part of this outlook towards biology could have to do with the general perception that, through technology, modern society has conquered nature. The contemporary world is a customizable one, and the individual expects his every preference and desire — from his Uber Eats orders to his online dating options — to be met, and promptly. It is difficult to confront the reality that even science is limited by nature, as was exemplified by some of the reactions during the pandemic.
Young singles are <a href="https://nam04.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.pewresearch.org%2Fsocial-trends%2F2020%2F08%2F20%2Fa-profile-of-single-americans%2F&amp;data=05%7C01%7CEvan.Myers%40heritage.org%7Cef3d8f9425b54ea0118608db9d9f888f%7Ccbd93b4867ea46759ee84178b273204a%7C0%7C0%7C638277080765737921%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&amp;sdata=YAdkZxPt40ppMfr90fcDWfxlphymZ3mySgXwscEa%2Byk%3D&amp;reserved=0" target="_blank" rel="noopener">putting other things before dating</a>. It’s a common belief these days that both spouses should be established and have experienced the world before settling down to the business of marriage. Marriage is viewed as a “capstone” rather than the “cornerstone” of life, <a href="https://nam04.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fifstudies.org%2Fblog%2Fcapstones-vs-cornerstones-is-marrying-later-always-better%23%3A~%3Atext%3DMost%2520American%2520adults%2520aspire%2520to%2Cadult%2520identity%25E2%2580%2594before%2520you%2520marry.&amp;data=05%7C01%7CEvan.Myers%40heritage.org%7Cef3d8f9425b54ea0118608db9d9f888f%7Ccbd93b4867ea46759ee84178b273204a%7C0%7C0%7C638277080766050471%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&amp;sdata=994brF8VTo%2BA36LxWZ0sKaAQbZw1JVs270cQUWLQvHk%3D&amp;reserved=0" target="_blank" rel="noopener">as Sociologist Andrew J. Cherlin has explained</a>.
Many young people also now come from broken homes and divorced parents likely do not encourage their children to <a href="https://nam04.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.pewresearch.org%2Fsocial-trends%2F2023%2F01%2F24%2Fparenting-in-america-today%2F&amp;data=05%7C01%7CEvan.Myers%40heritage.org%7Cef3d8f9425b54ea0118608db9d9f888f%7Ccbd93b4867ea46759ee84178b273204a%7C0%7C0%7C638277080766206734%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&amp;sdata=z%2B%2BNIgSC4Xu7krv2XJyLqj7uR80Yn40dqIo3c9jAZvQ%3D&amp;reserved=0" target="_blank" rel="noopener">prioritize marriage</a>, to make it the cornerstone of life. Only <a href="https://nam04.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.pewresearch.org%2Fshort-reads%2F2010%2F03%2F22%2Fmissing-mom-or-dad%2F&amp;data=05%7C01%7CEvan.Myers%40heritage.org%7Cef3d8f9425b54ea0118608db9d9f888f%7Ccbd93b4867ea46759ee84178b273204a%7C0%7C0%7C638277080766363011%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&amp;sdata=tPSHFNwe19gGqHmPnNoovScYWcOxdslOhQZKNZB741g%3D&amp;reserved=0" target="_blank" rel="noopener">62% of Millennials were raised by both parents</a>, compared to 71% of Gen Xers, 85% of Boomers, and 87% of Silents. The broken families of one generation can lead to a lack of family formation in another.
In “<a href="https://nam04.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fpsycnet.apa.org%2Frecord%2F2004-17367-002&amp;data=05%7C01%7CEvan.Myers%40heritage.org%7Cef3d8f9425b54ea0118608db9d9f888f%7Ccbd93b4867ea46759ee84178b273204a%7C0%7C0%7C638277080766675492%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&amp;sdata=pHcoC8ZVjiE%2BqSKwAKK7%2Fu8OYBeNc6lS260mLUUFVI0%3D&amp;reserved=0" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Unexpected Legacy of Divorce</a>,” University of California, Berkley, professor Judith S. Wallerstein and San Francisco State University professor Julia M. Lewis suggest that the impact divorce has on children extends into adulthood, affecting relationships and marriages:
<blockquote>“The central finding of this study is that parental divorce impacts detrimentally the capacity to love and be loved within a lasting, committed relationship…In addition to overcoming their fear of failure, they have a great deal to learn about the give and take of living with another person, about how to deal with differences, and about how to resolve conflicts.”</blockquote>
Children of divorce can be pessimistic about marriage and dismissive of its importance for human happiness. More fundamentally, they are missing a mapped example of a healthy relationship, of what to look for in a spouse and how to communicate well.
Individuals are putting off marriage and children, not only because of shifts in attitudes towards marriage, but because many who want to get married are struggling to find partners. Contributing to this are the effects of what has come to be known as the “boy crisis.” Like falling birth rates, the boy crisis is not just an American phenomenon, but is manifesting itself in many developed countries around the world.
More women are going to college than men, but women still would like partners as educated or more educated than them; for example, women are <a href="https://nam04.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fphys.org%2Fnews%2F2019-08-women-tinder-highly-men.html&amp;data=05%7C01%7CEvan.Myers%40heritage.org%7Cef3d8f9425b54ea0118608db9d9f888f%7Ccbd93b4867ea46759ee84178b273204a%7C0%7C0%7C638277080766831793%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&amp;sdata=fMK2GiMWdf96jN%2BuQI7lvD8oNsnomviyRoQEOx1e9Pg%3D&amp;reserved=0">91% more likely to “swipe right” on Tinder</a> when a man has a master’s versus a bachelor’s degree. According to Twenge, Millennials are making more money than previous generations, but “Every single penny of the rise in younger adults’ incomes is due to women’s incomes.”
This has been some time in the making. In ”The War Against Boys: How Misguided Policies Are Harming Our Young Men,” Christina Hoff Sommers drew attention to the academic gaps between girls and boys and how such gaps would hinder boys’ future earnings in a knowledge economy. Her book was published over 20 years ago. The boys of 2000 are the men of today.
The boy crisis, as devastatingly detailed in political scientist Warren Farrell’s and counselor John Gray’s “The Boy Crisis: Why Our Boys Are Struggling and What We Can Do About It,” can be primarily traced to the absence of fathers, with 40% of children now born out of wedlock. Not only have boys been lagging academically, their lifespans and IQs are decreasing, and young men are turning to drugs, alcohol, and suicide in despair.
The boy crisis, primarily precipitated by the absence of fathers, and a lack of family formation, constitutes a vicious cycle. The effects of dad-deprivation are more severe for boys than for girls, and, according to Farrell and Gray, “This is true not only of boys’ economic future, but also of boys’ emotional intelligence and marital potential — all of which are inextricably connected.” Women desire mature spouses and tend to be hypergamous; they marry those who are equal or above them in terms of education or socioeconomic status. When men are doing poorly, women are without suitable life partners.
Under such circumstances, a hook-up culture, made more possible by the invention of the birth control pill (and, in the case of Millennials and Zoomers, online dating) and encouraged by the tenets of the Sexual Revolution, tends to prevail. This vicious cycle leads men and women to put off marriage. And when women are educated and economically independent, many make the choice of pursuing other opportunities rather than settling with a partner with whom they lack confidence.
Adaptive thinking is called for when it comes to strengthening American families (and indeed, families around the world). Responding to declining birth rates will not simply, nor perhaps primarily, be a matter of adjusting policies that obviously pertain to the family, like parental leave, but addressing phenomena like the boy crisis.
Family policies cater to families that have already been formed, but a major driver of falling birth rates is that people are not getting married in the first place. If we hope to save the American family, we have to recognize this shift — and respond accordingly.
Brenda M. Hafera is the assistant director and senior policy analyst for the Simon Center for American Studies at The Heritage Foundation.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Beautiful setting for outdoors wedding ceremony

The Real Crisis Affecting The American Family

divorce

Marriage

Masculinity

North American youth face a growing identity crisis: over 300,000 American teenagers <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/transgender-young-people-in-u-s-have-nearly-doubled-recently-report-shows" target="_blank" rel="noopener">identify</a> as the opposite sex, while drug overdoses and suicide are the <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/injury/wisqars/animated-leading-causes.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">leading causes</a> of death for younger Americans — claiming over 72,000 young lives in 2020 alone — as loneliness <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/why-gen-z-is-turning-to-dating-apps-to-find-friends-fight-loneliness" target="_blank" rel="noopener">spreads</a> among Gen Z.
These social contagions are fueled by declining numbers in church attendance nationwide, especially among young people. Surveys by <a href="https://news.gallup.com/poll/341963/church-membership-falls-below-majority-first-time.aspx" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Gallup</a> and <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2019/10/17/in-u-s-decline-of-christianity-continues-at-rapid-pace/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Pew Research</a> show that increasing majorities of Millennials and Gen Zers do not belong to a church or attend services at all, and a sizable minority are now “religiously unaffiliated” — leading one writer to question if Gen Z should be called “<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/generation-z-generation-atheist-paul-bois" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Generation Atheist</a>.”
Yet, in the midst of these problems, many youth have found purpose and identity in something greater — 36,000 teens and young adults from across the continent gathered last week for <a href="https://northamericanyouthcongress.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener">North American Youth Congress</a> (NAYC), a <a href="https://upci.org/nayc-2023-downtown-st-louis/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">biennial event</a> that seeks to inspire young people to find purpose in faith and community service. NAYC is organized by the <a href="https://upci.org" target="_blank" rel="noopener">United Pentecostal Church International</a> (UPCI).
“The teenagers and young adults who attend NAYC give us hope for the future,” said UPCI <a href="https://upciyouth.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Youth Ministries</a> President Michael Thomas. He said NAYC is “a beacon of light and hope in a world that is being overrun by problems and strife.” 
The event took place last Wednesday through Friday in St. Louis, consisting of worship services, practical training sessions, and a community service project, in which attendees packed thousands of disaster relief buckets in partnership with <a href="https://www.reachoutamerica.org" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Reach Out America</a>.
Thomas described the event as a “counterculture” in that “we try not to allow societal trends to mold or shape our thinking and beliefs” and directly <a href="https://fb.watch/m2li1AI2Vf/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">addressed</a> transgenderism at the event Wednesday night, stating that “Biblical holiness” protects against “gender confusion.”
“How you were born is how you were intended by your Creator to be.” Thomas passionately proclaimed. “God did not put a question mark after your DNA — God put an exclamation point after your DNA! The Word of God says you were fearfully and wonderfully made. Don’t let the world erase how God made you!”
UPCI Superintendent Dr. David K. Bernard contrasted the event’s attendees with broader American culture, which he described as “increasingly secular and even hostile to Christian values.”
Despite the overall decline of religiosity in American youth, Thomas said his organization is experiencing rapid growth, especially among teenagers and young adults.
Meanwhile, author and NYU professor Johnathan Haidt <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/nyu-professor-says-fragile-gen-z-causing-national-crisis" target="_blank" rel="noopener">points to</a> “extraordinarily high rates of anxiety, depression, self-harm, suicide and fragility” among Gen Zers as a “national crisis.” Haidt linked the rise of “isolating” activities like social media use to increased rates of depression, particularly among teen girls.
A 2016 <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5127763/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">study</a> by the National Institute of Medicine, however, suggests that membership in a religious group can decrease one’s risk of depression and other mental health problems. NAYC’s organizers and attendees echoed the study, saying the conference helps youth connect with others and find their purpose in faith.
When asked about the mental health crisis, Thomas said that for these young Christians, “purpose and identity can be found in the Word of God.” 
“This purpose and identity are given to us by a loving Creator,” Thomas told The Daily Wire. “In a world of increasing loneliness and isolation, this event solidifies to a young person that they are not alone in their journey or their walk with God.” 
“NAYC helps me find community … in the power of coming in unity with people from all over the United States and worshiping the same God,” said 15-year-old Kayleigh Stephens. Anita Sullivan Lewis, of Cross Plains, Tennessee, told The Daily Wire that NAYC “gives my nonverbal son who has Down Syndrome and autism a sense of belonging. All the kids in our youth group include him, pray with him, make room for his wheelchair, and give him high fives to let him know he’s loved.”
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Back home, many of these students and parents face intense cultural battles in their school districts. Recent protests have <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/christians-and-muslims-unite-in-michigan-to-fight-sexually-explicit-material-in-school-libraries" target="_blank" rel="noopener">broken out</a> over new <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/watch-muslim-and-christian-parents-show-up-in-force-to-protest-lgbt-books-at-maryland-school-board" target="_blank" rel="noopener">mandates</a> in favor of teaching transgenderism and sexually explicit material to kids, uniting Christian and Muslim parents alike. Meanwhile, other religious <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/church-of-england-allows-blessings-for-same-sex-civil-marriages" target="_blank" rel="noopener">groups</a> openly embrace Left-wing <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/more-than-100-florida-churches-fleeing-denomination-over-lgbtq-issues" target="_blank" rel="noopener">ideologies</a>.
“It is through our relationship with God and His Word that certain questions about our identity can be settled, our direction and purpose in life can be answered, and we can live the whole and complete life we were intended to live,” Thomas concluded.
As cultural battles intensify across the country, many people of faith are conflicted about how to proceed. Yet, the organizers of NAYC see a path forward.
Dr. Bernard said that Christians can be both “loving and firm” in these battles. “We should seek to uphold important values for life, marriage, family, and society; and we should partner with others who share these goals,” he said.
“We should respect everyone as created in God’s image and as souls for whom Christ died.” he continued. “We shouldn’t be antagonistic, harsh, hateful, or bigoted, even when provoked. At the same time, we [should] be firmly committed to truth, and doing so isn’t bigotry.”
Thomas echoed Bernard’s call for a firm stand for Biblical values while loving those with whom they disagree. He said that “Jesus showed us the perfect model for this in the New Testament.” 
“Jesus told us to love everyone, but this does not mean we condone or endorse their lifestyle if it is contrary to His Word. Every word and action that we as Christians display should be motivated by and saturated with love,” Thomas said. “Disagreement should never become hatred.”
This form of love resounds with young Stephens, and she said her mission as she returns from the conference is “to impact my community and school by showing the love and compassion of Christ, to see people filled with His Spirit, [and] their families renewed and restored. … I want lives to be changed and miracles to be performed.”
Amid the cultural <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/middle-schoolers-accused-of-homophobia-after-chanting-usa-tearing-down-pride-decorations" target="_blank" rel="noopener">battles</a> in public schools across the country, attendees told The Daily Wire how NAYC inspires them to be strong in their faith despite facing <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/bible-pulled-from-utah-school-district-libraries-because-of-vulgarity-or-violence" target="_blank" rel="noopener">opposition</a> in their schools.
“I have been inspired in many ways,” said Talyha Bonny, 14, of Worcester, Massachusetts, who teaches Bible studies at her school over fierce ridicule by her classmates. “NAYC inspired me to put God first because when I do that, I will be strengthened, and I won’t be afraid.”
Stephens, from Troy, Missouri, described being a Christian in her public school as “a hard thing to do in the world we live in.” She said, “NAYC empowers me to tell my school about Jesus and the good he has done for me. It is hard to speak out and tell people about Jesus and the ‘why’ behind my acts,” she said, “but it is beyond rewarding seeing my friends go to church with me and ask me questions about my faith.”
NAYC was last held in 2019 with a pre-pandemic record of 37,000 attendees and took place virtually in 2021 due to the virus. The event will be held next in 2025 at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

St. Louis downtown city skyline

36,000 Young Christians Gather In St. Louis To Find ‘Purpose & Identity … In God’s Word’

36,000 Young Christians Gather In St. Louis To Find 'Purpose & Identity ... In God's Word'

Bible

Christianity

The online world of romance is <a href="https://mashable.com/article/tinder-future-of-dating-2023-gen-z" target="_blank" rel="noopener">changing</a> as young users demand more from their dating apps, but the question remains as to whether these changes will make a difference in the overall sense of isolation affecting young people. 
Young people have grown accustomed to using the internet to find love, and more recently, to discover friendships. Potential relationships are endlessly dangled in front of users, but this can prove altogether overwhelming. As it provides a constant, inescapable reminder of the countless possible connections at one’s fingertips, the internet can further deepen the feelings of loneliness hanging over this generation.
Over the course of the past several years, online dating has moved from a solitary practice sometimes met with stigma to a more common way to find a romantic partner. The number of people using online dating techniques has held steady in recent years. According to a Pew <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2023/02/02/key-findings-about-online-dating-in-the-u-s/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Research</a> survey from 2022, 30% of U.S. adults said they had “ever used a dating site or an app,” which was the same as three years prior. The most popular service was Tinder, with around 46% of respondents saying they had utilized it. The app recently released its Future of Dating Report, which <a href="https://www.tinderpressroom.com/2023-05-22-WELCOME-TO-A-RENAISSANCE-IN-DATING,-DRIVEN-BY-AUTHENTICITY" target="_blank" rel="noopener">showed</a> that people in Generation Z are more interested in making sure they are taking care of themselves when it comes to dating — and are interested in finding romantic partners <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/new-dating-app-for-young-conservatives-made-by-former-top-trump-aide" target="_blank" rel="noopener">who agree</a>. This demographic also puts certain characteristics on a pedestal, like loyalty and respect — coming in at 79% and 78%; and 61% of them put a high value on open-mindedness.
Tinder’s Global Relationship Insights Expert, Paul Brunson, sees promise in the new generation’s dating style. Brunson stated that “Gen Z will have the most successful marriages yet. Why? Because they’re investing in emotional well-being and clear communication.”
Yet despite the positive outlook and high rates of activity on these apps, users are not entirely satisfied with their results. A recent Currys <a href="https://www.currys.co.uk/techtalk/mobile/modernlove2023.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">study</a> out of the United Kingdom <a href="https://www.shinyshiny.tv/2023/02/are-dating-apps-on-their-way-out-new-study-reveals-success-rates-are-dropping.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">found</a> that Tinder had the highest rate of success out of 15 apps and sites. However, the notorious swipe-right/swipe-left app still had a lower success rate in 2022 than it did the year prior, a drop of about 5%. Almost every online dating venue showed a dip in reported successful relationships.
The low levels of success might be causing another movement as well. The younger generation is using dating sites for purposes other than finding romance — they are simply using them to <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2023/01/24/how-gen-z-is-turning-to-dating-apps-like-bumble-bff-to-make-friends.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">make</a> friends. Bumble <a href="https://bumble.com/en-us/the-buzz/what-exactly-is-bumble-bff" target="_blank" rel="noopener">BFF</a> is a new way the ladies-first dating app is helping users find friendship. Conversely, Gen Z is turning to social media sites like Instagram to romantically connect with people instead of dating apps like Tinder. According to a February <a href="https://www.ypulse.com/article/2023/02/09/gen-z-and-millennials-social-media-impacts-dating/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">report</a> from YPulse, 39% of 13 to 39-year-olds had “met a romantic partner on social media.” In contrast, only 29% had found someone to date on a dating app.
Instagram’s 2023 Trend <a href="https://about.instagram.com/en-us/file/1276350079639305/TRENDREPORT_2022_fin-2.pdf/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Report</a> supported this, pointing out that social media can create a more comfortable environment for people to share their feelings and emotions than being in person. “More than half of Gen Z social media users feel more comfortable being vulnerable online and over text than in person. On Instagram, DMs and messaging continue to drive connection and conversation between friends and love interests,” the report noted.
Gen Z may be shifting the way they date online,  but the fact that online sources are needed to make friendly connections points to a deeper void in the social circles of young people. It could also be an indication of a change in culture: the rise of remote work and schooling has led to an inability for many people to easily find peers with whom they might connect. 
While Gen Z searches for meaningful connections, they have retreated from doing so in classic ways, such as through traditional religion. According to the<a href="https://www.americansurveycenter.org/research/generation-z-future-of-faith/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> American</a> Survey Center, “Generation Z is the least religious generation yet,” with 34% of them unaffiliated with a religion. Data from the Springtide Research Institute found that one out of three Gen Z adults said they believed in a higher power, which was an increase from 2021. However, many have <a href="https://nypost.com/2023/05/27/why-gen-z-is-more-spiritual-and-religious-than-millennials/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> that they are more interested in non-denominational and interdenominational practices rather than traditional religion. 
Even as they search for spiritual alignment and relationships over the web, this is still a generation awash in loneliness. The more connections people make over the internet does not appear to have a positive correlation with how connected they feel to those around them. In fact, the high amounts of time spent online might ultimately drag them down. According to Pew Research Center <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2020/05/14/on-the-cusp-of-adulthood-and-facing-an-uncertain-future-what-we-know-about-gen-z-so-far-2/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">data</a> from 2018, 45% of teenagers aged 13 to 17-years-old said that they were online almost constantly, with 44% saying they were on it several times a day. Almost a third of Gen Z and Millennials <a href="https://www.ypulse.com/article/2023/03/22/how-lonely-are-gen-z-and-millennials/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">say</a> they feel lonely often or all the time. 
Thanks to the internet, the opportunity for friendship and romance appears to be readily available at any time. The disheartening reality, however, is that not everyone can be reached. 
The younger generation is searching for connection — whether to a spiritual being or to one another. The internet can provide this initial spark, but it threatens to replace real interactions with a false sense of intimacy. It will ultimately be up to the users to decide if it will benefit their generation and generations to come — or not.

Social Media Illustrations

Why Gen Z Is Turning To Dating Apps To Find Friends, Fight Loneliness

Instagram

Relationships

Social Media

TikTok

Tinder

Nowadays, they call them &#8220;side hustles,&#8221; but in the old days, they were known simply as &#8220;second jobs.&#8221;
In President Joe Biden&#8217;s America, with inflation, housing costs, and interest rates soaring, a lot of people need to make more money just to afford the cost of living. And despite all the dismissive smears on the younger generations wasting their money on cappuccino and avocado toast, they&#8217;re really just trying to stay afloat.
Nearly two in five (39%) of U.S. adults have a side hustle, <a href="https://www.bankrate.com/personal-finance/side-hustle-survey/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according</a> to a Bankrate survey. The numbers get even higher for younger generations.
Nearly half (46%) of Generation Z workers and more than a third (37%) of Millennials said that they worked a second part-time job — or even a second full-time job, according to a study of 22,000 young workers conducted by consulting firm Deloitte, Fortune <a href="https://fortune.com/2023/05/19/quiet-quitting-side-hustle-second-job-millennials-gen-z-paycheck-deloitte/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reports</a>.
Bankrate reports that less than one-quarter (24%) of Baby Boomers — who are now age 59 to 77 — say they have a side hustle, while 40% Gen Xers (age 43-58) have a second gig. And Bankrate puts the numbers even higher: 53% of Gen Zers (age 18-26) and 50% of Millennials (ages 27-42) said they have a second job.
The Deloitte poll found younger generations usually pick jobs they can do from home or that have flexibility, like selling online products, delivering food orders or working for a ride-share company like Uber of Lyft.
&#8220;The cost of living has been [the workers&#8217;] top concern for two consecutive years now, and finances are consistently their top stress driver,&#8221; Michele Parmelee, who heads global people and purpose at Deloitte, told Fortune. &#8220;Interestingly, these concerns are really consistent across both generations, so it’s not just a matter of Gen Zs being young and just getting started in their careers.&#8221;
Far more people with a second job say they just need the money. &#8220;Side hustles have become more common, but like so many things in this inflationary environment, people are working harder but not necessarily getting ahead. Side hustlers are much more likely to view this extra income as essential, rather than a passion project or a way to get ahead financially,&#8221; said Ted Rossman, Bankrate senior industry analyst.
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The side hustles bring in an average of $810 a month, Bankrate calculates, and a third of side hustlers say they need the extra cash just to meet day-to-day living expenses. Many of the two-jobbers make less than $50,000 a year, and many don&#8217;t see it getting better: More than a quarter (28%) think they&#8217;ll always need a side hustle to keep a roof over their heads and food in their bellies.
For the record, it wasn&#8217;t always this way. Back in my youth in the 1970s, my dad worked as a hospital administrator and my mom as a high school guidance counselor. We lived in a big house in the now chi-chi neighborhood of Chevy Chase, Maryland (my parents bought the house in 1969 for $67,000; it&#8217;s now <a href="https://www.redfin.com/MD/Chevy-Chase/8312-Kerry-Rd-20815/home/10671553" target="_blank" rel="noopener">valued</a> at more than $1.8 million) with a pool. We (parents and three kids) took a vacation to the beach every summer and a ski trip every winter.
But there were also plenty of families I knew where only the father worked, like my buddy Tony Salvatore&#8217;s. They had eight kids and lived in an even bigger house in Chevy Chase, all on a single income.
So the younger generations are absolutely right: Things are a mess these days. And sadly, Biden — who a lot of them voted for — isn&#8217;t doing a thing about it. In fact, the debt reduction bill just passed by Congress and on its way to the White House for his signature is going to make things worse for them.
Let&#8217;s hope by 2024 they truly take a look at the issues and pick the party that&#8217;ll most help them out &#8212; and make so they only have to work one job to make ends meet.
The views expressed in this piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.
Joseph Curl has covered politics for 35 years, including 12 years as White House correspondent for a national newspaper. He was also the a.m. editor of the Drudge Report for four years. Send tips to josephcurl@dailywire.com and follow him on Twitter @josephcurl.

To do list – side hustle

Gen Zers Are Right: In Biden’s America, Millions Need A Second Job Just To Survive

Gen Zers Are Right: In Biden's America, Millions Need A Second Job Just To Survive

Professionals in business and academia have lamented the decline of an important quality in workers over the past several years: the ability to utilize soft skills. The reason for such a decline is unknown, but several societal factors may be at play — and could provide a way to fix the problem.
According to <a href="https://trainingindustry.com/articles/performance-management/debunking-soft-skills-6-skills-that-impact-business-but-nobody-trains-for-spon-caveo/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Training Industry</a>, soft skills include communication, one&#8217;s work ethic, leadership ability, flexibility, working on a team, and interpersonal skills. Soft skills are abilities that may not be the primary focus of a specific job or career path, but they can ultimately be extremely beneficial to the way people operate in the workplace.
Soft skills, like managing time and solving problems, are necessary for basic life functions that not only make life easier, but also make one better at his or her job. 
Employers are often interested in hiring candidates with these &#8220;soft&#8221; abilities, but the share of workers with the know-how seems to be going down.
According to iCIMS <a href="https://www.icims.com/blog/why-soft-skills-are-more-important-than-ever-before/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">data</a> from 2018, one in three recruiting specialists <a href="https://www.simplilearn.com/future-proofing-your-career-why-you-must-upskill-your-soft-skills-article#:~:text=fields%E2%80%94but%20necessary.-,Soft%20skills%20are%20in%20decline,teaching%20soft%20skills%20to%20students." target="_blank" rel="noopener">thought that</a> job applicants’ soft skills had gone down in the past five years.
Authority figures appear to be where part of the blame gets placed.
For example, 97% of these recruiters felt that colleges and parental figures needed to work harder to teach students and children soft skills before they go get a job. 
One story of such a situation was provided by Jim Link, CHRO of Randstad North America, a staff agency, in Atlanta. He shared how his college-age son came to him with a problem when he was unable to get in touch with people at the office during his summer internship. Link <a href="https://www.shrm.org/resourcesandtools/hr-topics/employee-relations/pages/employers-say-students-arent-learning-soft-skills-in-college.aspx" target="_blank" rel="noopener">acted</a> like a coach for his son for a week to help him address the issue.
&#8220;I taught him about being inspirationally irritating,&#8221; Link said. &#8220;It means saying what you need persuasively, up to the point of driving people nuts. What I was really teaching him was how to work with other people — about influence, negotiation and persuasion.&#8221;
This was an example, according to Link, of how modern-day college students are unable to come up with solutions to problems in creative ways. 
“Adaptability, problem-solving, creativity, influence, drive, empathy and collaboration. What I’ve observed is that those things … aren’t being practiced by college graduates,” he said.
A 2018 Cengage/Morning Consult <a href="https://www.shrm.org/resourcesandtools/hr-topics/employee-relations/pages/employers-say-students-arent-learning-soft-skills-in-college.aspx" target="_blank" rel="noopener">survey</a> found that 64% of employers felt that it was “very or somewhat difficult” to find qualified applicants who had critical-thinking abilities, and 54% said finding people with communication skills was just as hard. In addition, 55% said that it was difficult to find people with interpersonal skills, and the same amount said it was difficult to find people with the ability to listen.
Another factor might not be the colleges themselves, but rather the courses and degrees that are being highlighted. One <a href="https://www.simplilearn.com/future-proofing-your-career-why-you-must-upskill-your-soft-skills-article#:~:text=fields%E2%80%94but%20necessary.-,Soft%20skills%20are%20in%20decline,teaching%20soft%20skills%20to%20students.">report</a> addresses the types of jobs and fields students are pursuing.
When it comes to students going through science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) programs, the hard skills that will get them to pass are prioritized. When this happens, soft skills are not necessarily viewed as another vital piece to their success and they could be ignored altogether.
But soft skills are essential to the function and growth of a workplace — and increasingly so. Philip J. Hanlon, President of Dartmouth College,<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/soft-skills-power-you-decide-darren-taylor/"> recognized</a> this and says instead that he sees these soft skills as “power skills” to underline their importance.
In 2018, investor and owner of the Dallas Mavericks Mark Cuban <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/soft-skills-power-you-decide-darren-taylor/">said</a> he believed that in a decade, “a liberal arts degree in philosophy will be worth more than a traditional programming degree.” This is because artificial intelligence and automatic technology will change jobs to such a degree that if someone has a degree in a field that allows them to think creatively and outside of the box, this will be worth much more than perhaps it seems to be now.
This also might be because degrees that promote soft skills could be less common and harder to come by, especially when college-age individuals <a href="https://www.npr.org/2022/10/20/1129980557/the-college-enrollment-drop-is-finally-letting-up-thats-the-good-news#:~:text=According%20to%20preliminary%20data%20released,fewer%20students%20enrolled%20in%20college." target="_blank" rel="noopener">choose</a> not to go to college at all in the face of high tuition costs and undesirable college campus environments for many young people. The current economy also might not promise a position in their chosen specialty when they graduate.
Soft skills are also considered to be more important for some careers than they are for others. For example, if someone is working with customers on a regular basis, the ability to be kind and hear what the customer is saying is an essential way to be helpful. However, this type of soft skill shouldn’t be relegated to one corner, The Balance <a href="https://www.thebalancemoney.com/what-are-soft-skills-2060852" target="_blank" rel="noopener">noted</a>. People also have to be able to coexist peacefully with colleagues and others in the workplace.
While academics are increasingly pushed on kids, as well as <a href="https://psychcentral.com/news/2018/05/15/too-many-extracurricular-activities-for-kids-may-do-more-harm-than-good#1" target="_blank" rel="noopener">extracurricular activities</a>, it may be that soft skills are not as pronounced in the home and are not as highly valued.
Social media, as well, has <a href="https://www.simplilearn.com/future-proofing-your-career-why-you-must-upskill-your-soft-skills-article#:~:text=fields%E2%80%94but%20necessary.-,Soft%20skills%20are%20in%20decline,teaching%20soft%20skills%20to%20students." target="_blank" rel="noopener">played</a> a part in physically separating people from one another so that they have more opportunities to connect online than in person, diminishing the improvement of soft skills over online communication skills.
A 2018 study published in Sage Journals <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0950422217749277" target="_blank" rel="noopener">pointed</a> out that the drop-off in social capital is affecting how college graduates are able to learn these types of skills. 
“Therefore, the results of this study give rise to the hypothesis that the decline in social capital at the macrosocial level is negatively influencing recent college graduates’ formation of soft skills. This may be due to the decrease in building social capital through face-to-face interaction, rather than due to colleges not preparing graduates for success in the business environment,” the article stated.
Spending more time in person with other people and improving these skills could end up being the most sought-after resume builder in the years to come.

Closeup of man sitting at table with his hands clasped

The Rise Of ‘Adulting’ Culture And The Decline Of Soft Skills

The Rise Of 'Adulting' Culture And The Decline Of Soft Skills

Social Issues

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