Why Michigan Milennials Say They're Worse Off Than Their Parents

According to a recent Cygnal polling commissioned by Michigan Enjoyer, and in conjunction with Beacon Research, more than 43% of Michiganders believe that they are worse off than their parents were at the same age.

Additionally, 19.6% say they are “about the same.” Only 35.2% of Michiganders think that they are “better off.”

But there is a noticeable discrepancy between the over 55 and under 55 crowds. For women under 55, 61% say they are worse off, and for men under 55 the number is 56%. The majority of young and middle-aged people in this state truly believe that they are worse off than their parents were at the same age.

This tracks with the fall of Detroit as a major center of industry. Throughout the end of the 20th century, manufacturing jobs moved overseas and the Rust Belt hollowed out. The most densely populated part of the state was left behind.

This might seem like an oversimplification of the issue, but the population boom that Michigan saw in the 20th century depended on those jobs. And a lot of them are gone.

However, we can’t forget that we live in the 21st century. There aren’t as many manufacturing jobs, but the laptop class has grown exponentially. With technological advances and the restructuring of labor post-pandemic, there are a lot of ways in which we might just be better off than our parents.

The job market is tough—especially for young people in our state. One of the most cited reasons for young people leaving Michigan is a lack of jobs. There are simply more opportunities elsewhere.

Our parents couldn’t build cars from a laptop, but today working from home is not uncommon. Nearly a quarter of U.S. jobs are remote or hybrid. Additionally, AI is eliminating a lot of drudgery for many workers. This poses its own problems, but, like remote work, it could liberate us in a way that we haven’t seen since the invention of the internet.

We’ve been given back a resource that previous generations couldn’t have possibly imagined: time.

The poll conducted did not specify whether or not “better off” was in regard to money. We’re lonelier than previous generations, further from God, and the sexes are politically divided. The institutions of the old world seem to have disappeared.

But you are not a cultural trend. You are a rugged individual and capable of course-correcting in your own life. Double text your friends, haunt coffee shops and dying bars, go to church, reject political categorization, and embrace the people in front of you.

Unfortunately, being a company man like your union-card grandfather might not be an option. There are fewer institutions making community easy for you. This is a dramatic change and understandably there are growing pains. But one gains nothing from perpetually bemoaning what we’ve lost. We must reject the victimhood mentality that keeps us stuck in an idealized past.

Millennials never got the utopia they hoped for. Obama-era optimism met reality. And Zoomers, raised on the fickle whims of the algorithm and a superabundance of doomsday projections, seem to prefer doomscrolling into Armageddon rather than using the tools at their disposal for personal gain.

We’ve learned that Fortune is random, maybe, but she still favors the brave. And if you’re brave, you may just escape the permanent underclass.

Nihilism does not serve you. It brings stagnation and death.

Do you want to sit in your parents’ home and blame the Boomers, the government, the Jews? Will you constantly search for reasons why it might all go to shit, looking for anything to avoid the reality that you have both agency and opportunity?

This country was built by hard working men and women who dared to believe in a better future. You are an American. You are a Michigander. Maybe you’re worse off than your parents, but you are wealthier in some ways and have greater opportunity in front of you than any generation in history and most of the modern world. If you accept blame for your failures, you are also capable of changing them.