Carlsson-Szlezak argues that the dominant narrative claiming Gen Z and millennials are falling financially behind their boomer and Gen X predecessors does not hold up against the data, showing instead that younger generations are ahead in both inflation-adjusted income and balance sheet wealth at comparable ages. He attributes the gap between perception and reality primarily to social media exposure, particularly among Gen Z who grew up with smartphones and were exposed to unrealistic benchmarks of success such as the survey finding that Gen Z believes one needs to make $600,000 a year to be financially successful, a figure only one in 100 Americans earn. Carlsson-Szlezak concludes that while homeownership is delayed rather than denied, with millennials catching up to Gen X homeownership rates by age 42, the toxic confluence of exalted expectations, flawed benchmarks, and misguided narratives has created record levels of pessimism among the young even as the underlying data shows broad-based economic progress.
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Income and wealth outpacing prior generations: Carlsson-Szlezak shows that when aligned on an age scale, Gen Z and millennials are ahead of prior generations in both inflation-adjusted income and balance sheet wealth. The median inflation-adjusted income of the oldest Gen Z workers at age 28 is 25% higher than millennials and 50% higher than baby boomers at the same age.
Social media distorting success benchmarks: Carlsson-Szlezak identifies Gen Z as guinea pigs of the smartphone revolution who went through high school and early adulthood with smartphones before schools and parents established guardrails. A 2024 survey shows Gen Z thinks one needs to make $600,000 a year to be financially successful, while boomers think $150,000, revealing a progressive decay in realistic expectations across generations.
Homeownership delayed not denied: Carlsson-Szlezak notes that 90% of young people want to live in expensive urban areas where housing is most scarce, a choice that delays homeownership. Millennials catch up with Gen X homeownership rates by age 42 as they move to suburbs where affordability is higher, and when holding home size constant over the last twenty to thirty years, affordability has remained flat.
Equity wealth building over real estate: Carlsson-Szlezak points out that younger generations have greater exposure to equity assets rather than real estate, which has paid off over the last fifteen years as the equity market has performed very well. While Gen X saw their wealth curve slump during the global financial crisis due to housing exposure, younger generations have benefited from tight labor markets since 2017 and strong equity returns.
K shaped economy narrative unsupported: Carlsson-Szlezak challenges the K shaped economy narrative by indexing incomes and balance sheets of different quintiles since 2020, showing that while the rich are getting richer, the bottom of the distribution is also making progress rather than getting poorer. He notes that a quarter of all wage earners in any given year sees negative real wage growth, but this was also true in 2005 and 2015, not a new phenomenon.
