Via The Guardian:
Australian millennials increasingly think big businesses and politicians do more harm than good, a new survey has found.
The annual Deloitte survey of Generation Y, roughly defined as those born between 1983 and 1994, found they were increasingly sceptical of politics but surprisingly more personally optimistic than last year.
Of the 337 Australian millennials surveyed, only 45% believed business had a positive impact on society, down from 72% last year. Almost half – 44% – believed businesses behaved ethically, down from 54%.
The scorecard for politicians was even worse – 63% of Australian millennials believed politicians have a negative impact on society. Only 23% said they had a positive impact.
But compared to last year, Australians were much more optimistic about their personal futures, when measuring against their baby boomer parents.
More than a third (39%) believed they would be better off than their parents, and 35% said they would be happier. While this was still below the global average (51% and 41% respectively), it was a huge upturn from last year, when only 8% thought they would be better off than their parents.
The top five issues of personal concern were: terrorism (31%), climate change and the environment (30%), income inequality (24%), unemployment (23%) and war (22%).
Did the survey even ask about house prices? It should have, via Domainfax:
Siobhan Joffe says the Australian dream of owning a house is so far out of reach that she softens the blow by spending her money on eating out and travel.
A new survey has found Australian millennials like her are pessimistic about the future with only about 35 per cent believing they will be happier than their parents.
“Ideally, the security of owning a house would be awesome but it’s becoming more and more unrealistic at this point,” the 22-year-old advertising student who works as a barista said.
“A lot of young people just expect that it’s not going to be on the cards for them so you use your money on things like food, going out, travel and enjoying your life instead.”
A federal Australian Youth Party is an idea long overdue. Perhaps rather than enjoying experiences some enterprising Millennial could start it. It should:
- be liberal in both social and economic policy;
- push housing market reform to outright lower prices;
- campaign for sustainable immigration and visa reform (about half current levels) to open entry level job positions to locals kids;
- force the Budget to re-adjust its priorities to include redress of legacy debt and push back the War on Youth;
- dedicate Australia to fulsome decarboniation and environmental protections.
It would be an absolute Greens and Labor killer forcing both party’s policy platforms towards its positions.
I first put this idea forward five years ago. Stop snapping selfies and get on with it!
