What Do Young People Really Want? The Suburbs.
A steady job, a simple house, and a quiet life used to sound like hell to many young people. Now the old American dream is back.
Politicians these days cannot stop talking about “affordability,” especially for housing. And Americans’ cries for relief have grown loud enough to push lawmakers from babbling into action. The 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act became law last month with overwhelming bipartisan support within Congress. It’s encouraging to see members of both parties coming together around something other than just spending more money—and doing so in a way that helps the young more than the old.
In fact, young people are supplying most of the pressure behind this political movement. A Pew Research poll last month found that 89 percent believe buying a home will be harder for them than it was for their parents’ generation.
And it isn’t just the homes themselves. Americans still believe the American dream is worth striving for, yet less than half believe that every American has the opportunity to achieve it. Many young people are trying to find their way toward a lifestyle their parents had that they took for granted and now feel they cannot reach as adults. That includes owning a home, having a good-paying job with benefits, and being able to afford some added comforts in addition to the necessities. In a word, suburbia.
It’s an extraordinary and ironic turn that bourgeois suburban life would become the deepest desire of many young Americans. I grew up in the suburbs in a time when you had to hate the suburbs. ...
If you want to get a feel for the zeitgeist back then, check out Green Day’s 2004 American Idiot album, especially the 9-minute-long epic “Jesus of Suburbia.” Everyone’s so full of shit / Born and raised by hypocrites. It’s a spirited rejection of George W. Bush, the Iraq War, hypocritical parents, and apparently, the suburbs. ...
