Younger people redefine ‘American dream’ vision
Concept is still alive, but goals are personal and less standardized, study says.
Growing up, Paige Friscioni heard about the “American dream”: go to college, work hard, buy a house and have kids and a dog and live until you retire comfortably. But as Friscioni has gotten older, the 38-year-old said she has seen peers check those boxes and find themselves miserable or wanting something else. “So, maybe the American dream isn’t really the house or the job or whatever, the Goldendoodle. Maybe the real American dream is the freedom to decide what your life looks like,” Friscioni said on a recent TikTok post. She’s not alone in her thinking. The concept of the American dream is being redefined and becoming less standardized among generations, according to a new SimonKucher study shared exclusively with USA TODAY.
The new American dream
“The last few years have been difficult for Americans,” Shikha Jain, a Simon-Kucher partner and lead of the consumer sector for North America told USA TODAY.
“The American dream is still alive, but it’s no longer defined by a shared and uniform vision from long ago, pining for home ownership, raising a family, achieving financial stability and marked by hard work,” Jain said. “Today, the new American dream is very personal and represents making life work today, by making ends meet, covering daily expenses and enjoying meaningful experiences.”
The American dream is about preserving a quality of life that aligns with individual goals, values and personal fulfillment, she said.
Simon-Kucher surveyed 5,000 adults representing Gen Z, millennials, Gen X and baby boomers, all across varying household incomes.
A majority of those surveyed still believed in the “traditional” “American Dream” of homeownership, family, hard work, stability and financial progress.
Sixty-six percent saw homeownership as central to the traditional American dream, while 61% said raising a family and 58% said seeing success through hard work were keys to the dream. Fifty-six percent rated financial stability and 55% rated stable employment as key.
Generational differences to the American dream
Younger generations define the American dream less consistently, the report said. They are still more connected to the idea and the change is not rejection, but a redefinition.
Personal definitions are becoming less universal, especially among younger generations. Key differences include a focus on personal freedom and independence, safety and security, retiring comfortably and financial stability to meet basic needs.
“While baby boomers are retirementoriented, younger Americans are focused on immediate financial goals like paying for essentials and discretionary experiences,” Jain said. “That tension creates trade-offs for Gen Z and millennials who are tacking on debt and sacrificing long-term goals like owning a home to maintain a quality of life in a challenging financial environment.”
For instance, the top category for baby boomers (71%) was retiring comfortably, while Gen Xers’ top category (60%) was tied with retirement and financial stability (meeting basic needs). The top category for millennials and Gen Zers were both “personal freedom and independence,” at 50% and 52%.
Pathway to American dream varies
The path to achieving the American dream seems to be less clear among respondents. Thirty-five percent said there was no clear or best path. No one route, such as a a career in skilled trade or technology, a four-year degree or a creative or independent career, ranked more than 15%. Overall, 43% to 62% of respondents said “core milestones” such as home ownership, early retirement and financial independence are more difficult for most Americans to achieve than older generations.
Cost of living is the universal barrier, with all four generations citing it as the biggest barrier to achieving current life aspirations, according to the study. But younger Americans (Gen Z at 31% and millennials at 26%) said job insecurity was also a major barrier, compared with 20% of Gen Xers and 5% of baby boomers.
Money is still important
Money and wealth still means “success” to many Americans, but there are generational differences, according to the report.
While all generations ranked “financial wealth” as their top measure of success, baby boomers (23%) and Gen X’ers (18%) ranked material possessions second while millennials and Gen Zers ranked “freedom over your time” as second (tied at 16% for both.)
“Many Americans are choosing quality of life over status and wealth accumulation, seeking personal experiences and control like flexibility at home and work, even if it means trading in longterm savings,” Jain said.
Homeownership is still desired
Homeownership also still ranked high among all generations as part of the “American Dream.”
Seventy-nine percent of baby boomers said they owned a home, while 64% of Gen X, 59% of millennials and 29% of Gen Zers were homeowners.
Among the younger generations, 78% of millennials and 84% of Gen Zers said they hoped to one day own a home. But 58% of millennials and 59% of Gen Z respondents said it was harder than previous generations.
Younger generations want stability
The findings in the Simon-Kucher study are similar to another study of the American dream from earlier this year by the Savannah College of Art and Design’s applied research studio.
In that study, Gen Z and millennials said they felt the path to financial stability is “steeper and more precarious” than it was for past generations and that the dream felt “outmoded or distant,” as previously reported by USA TODAY.
Financial security had become the most important aspect of the American dream for young respondents.
Redefined American dream
Friscioni, a millennial who lives in Detroit, believes she has reached the American dream, but it wasn’t the one ingrained in her as she grew up.
“I did everything kind of the opposite way,” Friscioni told USA TODAY. She traveled around the world after high school and has a Gen Z-aged daughter and bought a house at a young age, but Friscioni said she always felt judged by others.
“The American dream shouldn’t be something that’s designed by somebody else. It should be something that’s designed by you,” said Friscioni, who owns a business selling designer toys.
“The American dream isn’t that perfect thing anymore. The real American dream is to decide what you want to be,” she said.