I had the good fortune to attend the "A Better Deal Conference" last Friday, which brought together young progressive leaders from across the country to talk about how we can make America a better place for young people and their families.
One thing I learned about at the conference was a new survey by the Center for American Progress that examines how the attitudes of young people have been changing over the last couple of decades. The current generation of 18-to-29 year olds -- the "Millennials" -- are, it turns out, are pretty strongly progressive. (That's in strong contrast to the cohort that preceded them, the cynical "Generation X", which can be loosely defined as "anyone who remembers watching Schoolhouse Rock in a completely non-ironic way".)
Just how progressive are they?
- Millennials are more likely to support universal health coverage than any age group in the 30 previous years the question has been asked, with 57 percent of 18- to 29-year-olds saying that health insurance should come from a government insurance plan.
- Eighty-seven percent of Millennials think the government should spend more money on health care even if a tax increase is required to pay for it, the highest level of support in the question’s 20-year history.
- An overwhelming 95 percent of Millennials think education spending should be increased even if a tax increase is required to pay for it, the highest level ever recorded on this question in the 20 years it has been asked.
- Sixty-one percent of Millennials think the government should provide more services, the most support of any age group in any of the previous 20 years the question was asked.
And this progressive trend extends to supporting workers' right to join together in unions as well:
- Millennials are very supportive of labor unions, giving them an average ranking of 60 on a 0-to-100 scale (with 0 indicating a more negative view of labor unions and 100 being a more positive view), the second-highest level of support of any age group in the over 40-year history of the question.
Plus, the Millennial generation shows high levels of political interest and engagement. In other words: they're progressive, and they vote. That's an encouraging combination for the future.
(Oh, and if you're interested in a more thorough generational analysis of political trends, I recommend the excellent book Generations, which predicted that the Millennial generation would be civic-minded and politically active -- which was quite a feat, considering that it was published in 1991, when the oldest of today's Millennials were twelve years old.)
Comments (1)
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Damn you Lefkowitz, you beat me to this story.
I'm in the middle of getting my own version, I'm focusing on the fact that all age brackets are finding unions as most favorable in the past 30 years. just can't get the words together.
nice job brother
In solidarity,'Joe
Posted by Joe's Union Review on May 14, 2008 at 2:09 AM
Posted on May 14, 2008 at 2:09 AM