The vibes are off, and globally so. A Pew Research Center poll of adults in 36 countries found that in the median nation, 57 percent of respondents said that they think when children in their country grow up they will be worse off financially than their parents were, while only 34 percent took the optimistic point of view and said they thought those kids would be better off. This held in the U.S. (74 percent said worse off, 26 percent better off), Canada (78 percent worse, 16 percent better), most of Europe (with Canada-esque numbers in Italy, France and the UK), rich countries in Asia (South Korea, Japan and Australia) and even plenty of Africa and the Middle East. The most optimistic countries tended to be on the Asian subcontinent (like India and Bangladesh) and in the Malay archipelago (Indonesia, Singapore and the Philippines).
Richard Wike, Moira Fagan, Christine Huang, Laura Clancy and Jordan Lippert, Pew Research Center
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