The collective generational discourse between Gen Z and their parents, mostly Gen X and some Baby Boomers, is as angry, resentful, and frustrated as it has ever been. The oldest of Generation Z are now entering their 30s and, over the years, have noticed that social conditions and federal policy have been against them nearly all of their lives. They correctly point out that the system was more conducive to launching into adulthood when their parents were coming of age.
Their parents seem flustered. Most of the parents of Gen Z that I talk to recognize the problem and are doing their level best to give their children the best boost they can. Those who don’t see the problem spend a lot of time blaming a lack of motivation, social media, cell phones, or something else. These parents have a difficult time reflecting on the reality that they were the ones who provided access to those things and settled for low standards while raising Gen Z.
I’m uniquely positioned to write on this topic. I’m a Millennial who caught a glimpse of the good times before the Great Recession, before the race communist policies of Barack Obama, before the full effects of preferential trade terms with China and other nations hollowed out our industrial base, before the full weight of decades of Hart-Celler-driven immigration came crashing down on wages and our standard of living, before the DEI/Woke era began in academia and the broader public. As a child and a high school student, I got to see the object of much of Gen Z’s secondhand nostalgia.
I’m also a PhD economist with 15 years of experience in academia. I watched the woke revolution in academia happen as a graduate student and early in my career as a tenure-track faculty member of flagship universities. I gave up tenured academia to move my family home and have spent the last 8 years with a heavy emphasis on teaching. I get to meet hundreds of Gen Z students every semester and the conversations I have give me insight into their dreams, aspirations, concerns, and fears. Some of them seek me out for advice on their career and life in general. A few of those become my friends.
One could argue that these experiences give me insight, but without skin in the game, I have no good reason to carefully vet the advice I might give to Gen Z. This argument fails because, through my 3 children, I have bought into the future well beyond my years. My oldest son is one of the first of Gen Alpha and will be 15 this year. As he has entered his teen years, my conversations with Gen Z students have become more salient to my role as a father. What is the world going to look like when my son and his siblings are ready to launch into adulthood? How can I best assist them? How will AI and other issues causing anxiety among Gen Z affect them? As I’ve tried to come up with answers to these questions, I’ve developed some advice I want to pass along to Gen Z and their parents.
That starts with recognizing that there is a problem unique to Gen Z. Metrics like housing affordability, growth in compensation vs productivity since the mid-1960s, the decline of American manufacturing, the explosion of medical and welfare fraud, and others have definitely contributed to the systematic degradation of the US economy. This has diminished Gen Z’s odds of success as they’ve entered adulthood. Those who won’t accept this are welcome to make logical arguments (with supporting evidence) in the comments.
How can we take action to address the plight of the Zoomer? What follows are some thoughts that I hope will make positive progress in addressing that question. They are arranged in no particular order and I confess that I have varying levels of confidence that the public will take my advice. It’s certainly possible that my advice is worth precisely what you’re paying for it, so I welcome critiques and responses in the comments.
Most of the policy changes that I think would be effective at addressing the macro-scale economic issues Gen Z faces are already in progress. The Trump administration’s tariff policy changes last year are bearing fruit in the form of a stronger dollar and a more balanced trade picture. Manufacturing construction and the pace of orders have picked up.
Remigration began last year, the border is effectively closed, the wall is being built, and more deportations will occur over the next 3 years as the increase in ICE funding is already baked in to the budget. These two policies will put upward pressure on wages and downward pressure on housing. The new Fed chair will likely look at recent inflation trends and reduce rates, which will also help Zoomers afford houses. I’ve written many times about what I think are optimal pro-family policies (e.g. here, here, and here) and I’m hopeful that some time in the next decade, policy will improve in those areas.
“Pull yourself up by the bootstraps!” is perhaps the most frustrating phrase for Millennials and Zoomers. This phrase epitomizes the Boomer stereotype of glib lack of concern for the plight of Zoomers, and to some extent Millennials before them. As I pointed out above, the system itself was better for Boomers and to some extent for Gen X than for later generations entering adulthood. The bootstraps were longer, thicker, stronger, and included a hand up now and then.
What would be best for building strong young families (and what else should we be focused on?) is for Boomers and Gen X to leverage their connections in favor of their children. I’m aware of some objections:
“They won’t appreciate it if it’s just handed to them!” - Not if it’s just handed to them, but if you bring them in to the circle and hold them accountable, they just might appreciate it.
“Everyone just needs to get the best person for the job!” - It’s pretty clear that it’s not possible to tell exactly which person is best for a given job, among all the possibilities. Developing their skillset with someone who has a personal investment in them is a better bet than any random guy who filled out an application.
The bottom line is that parents of young adults in 2026 need to know their children very well. What interests them? How intelligent are they? What lines of work would suit them best? What next move would set them up for success? Not all kids should shoot for Ivy League admission. Not all kids should go to college. If you know your children well, you can leverage (or build!) your network in ways that will help them. You can spend the time and energy it takes to guide them well. The notion of “kicking them out” when they turn 18 is just a way for parents to avoid their duty as parents. Those duties don’t end when your children become legal adults.
A friend of mine is retiring next month, so he and I have had a lot to talk about recently. He’s excited about all the time he will get to spend with his adult children and his grandchildren. At one point he mentioned his retirement portfolio and I asked him if he had any big plans for it. He said he wasn’t sure but he knew his adult children could use some help. I suggested he consider breaking off a substantial chunk of it and giving it to them now rather than wait til he’s in the ground in 20 years. The money will be much more helpful to them now than later and could help them overcome some of the challenges young Millennials and Zoomers are having buying homes.
He seemed to think that would be a good idea but suggested that his wife would worry about their financial situation later in life. The reality is that, if anything, their twilight years will be more pleasant if they do what they can for their children now. Traditionally, caring for our elders was part of what we did in our prime years. With modern medicine and standards of care, it looks a little different these days, but by parting with a substantial portion of his savings now to help his adult children will empower them to keep him and his wife close by as they complete their final trips around the sun.
As it always has been, we have duties as parents and as children. Those duties extend beyond changing diapers and arranging funerals. The state of our economy, thanks to conditions that resulted from specific decisions made by specific individuals in power over the past 60 years, not entire generations, necessitates an approach that focuses on what is important: family formation and the future. For Boomers and Gen X, your participation in that future might look a little different than you might have envisioned. For younger Millennials and Gen Z, that might mean you have bigger hills to climb and obstacles to overcome. All generations should act as if you will be remembered for what you accomplish in the face of difficulty, loss, and self-denial. That’s the truth.
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