“There’s a common narrative that younger generations in the US have been left out to dry economically. The journalist Derek Thompson recently looked into this claim and, after giving the argument a fair consideration, finds that young Americans are actually richer than previous generations were at the same age. He also notes that while youth unemployment and home ownership rates are worrisome, they are not that far off the historic norm,” notes Malcolm Cochran.
However, young people FEEL worse. “Since 1978, the Survey of Consumers, which is published by the University of Michigan, has asked people how they feel about consumer conditions. In the last few years, sentiment among young people has puked. Among people between 18 and 34 years old, consumer sentiment is near its all-series low—worse than the painful end of stagflation, worse than the Great Recession, and worse than the pandemic. Buying conditions for houses have fallen off a cliff. You simply cannot look at this picture and say young people think this economy is good for them, or that it’s a good time to buy stuff,” notes Derek Thompson.
Unemployment is rising among the young: “Hiring has been declining for years. The unemployment rate for Americans between 20 and 24 just hit a ten-year high (excluding the pandemic).”
And people are buying homes at later ages. “The average age of first-time buyers just hit 40, an all-series record, according to the National Association of REALTORS. A lot of 30somethings who would have been homebuyers in any other generation now can’t afford to own where they live. That sucks.”
The head of the Federal Reserve System says that artificial intelligence is reducing employment among young people. “Once you adjust for statistical overcounting in the payroll data, he said during a press conference Wednesday following the FOMC meeting, ‘job creation is pretty close to zero.’ He connected that slowdown, at least in part, to what CEOs are now openly telling investors: AI allows them to do more with fewer people. He noted ‘a significant number of companies’ have recently announced layoffs or hiring pauses, with many of them explicitly citing AI as the reason.”
On the other hand, artificial intelligence is creating new wealth, saving lives, and improving living standards. Artificial intelligence is being used to create highly-effective antibodies to fight disease. Doctors are using artificial intelligence to detect cases of breast cancer more effectively. An artificial intelligence algorithm outperforms radiologists in diagnosing prostate cancer from MRI scans, reports Inside Precision Medicine. It also cuts false positive diagnoses in half, according to a study by researchers at Radboud University.
