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A remarkable number of Europeans believe the financial situation for average people in their country has not improved over the past two decades. In Greece, Italy and Spain – three southern European nations hit hard by the financial crisis – large majorities say average people are worse off than they were 20 years ago. And roughly half or more share this view in France and the UK. Two notable exceptions are Poland and Sweden, where about two-in-three believe people are generally better off financially.
Few American homeowners were spared from the broad housing collapse a decade ago, but Generation Xers were hit particularly hard. Yet Gen Xers are the only generation of households to recover the wealth they lost during the Great Recession.
In about a third of married or cohabiting couples in the United States, women bring in half or more of the earnings, a significant increase from the past. But in most couples, men contribute more of the income, and this aligns with the fact that Americans place a higher value on a man’s role as financial provider.
“This is the financial reality of all people’s lives, and the burdens hit at all stages of the life cycle. They hit the 25 or 28 year old who may have gone to college and may have taken out a big debt, thinking, ‘Aha, this is the ticket to a good financial future,’ and is still living in his childhood bedroom because there’s nothing but internships and dead-end jobs. It hits the middle-age parent who is still supporting that child, and who may be supporting an elderly parent…it’s more expensive at all stages of the life cycle.”
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Catch Paul Taylor’s full interview on the state of retirement savings on CSPAN’s Washington Journal.
Our full report on the “Sandwich Generation” is here.