Gen Z Americans are leaving their European cousins in the dust

The idea behind the concept of generations is that people born at a certain time share similar experiences, which in turn shape common attitudes.

The “Greatest” and “Silent” generations, born in the early decades of the 20th century, witnessed economic adversity and global conflict, going on to form relatively leftwing views. Baby boomers grew up accustomed to growth and prosperity, and went on to lean strongly conservative.

It was a similar story for millennials, who entered adulthood in the aftermath of the global financial crisis to be greeted by high unemployment, anaemic income growth, and ballooning house price to income ratios, going on to champion strongly progressive politics.

A lot of analysis and discourse treats millennials and Gen Z as close cousins, united in their struggle to achieve the prosperity of earlier generations. But the validity of that elision depends a lot on where you look.

Millennials right across the western world really were united in their economic malaise. From the US and Canada to Britain and western Europe, the cohort born in the mid to late 1980s lived its formative adult years against a backdrop of weak or stagnant wage growth and cratering rates of home-ownership.

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