If you are a parent in the (dis)United States, recent research suggests you are worrying more and more about your children’s futures.

These numbers blow my mind. Even the 2019 baseline represents a serious break with the post- World War II past when parents assumed their children’s lives would be better than their own. Now, that has completely flipped.

The most cited culprits include the rising cost of higher education, the utter lack of affordable housing, rising health care costs, a gerontocracy that continuously games political and economic systems in their favor, and a tax code that favors investors who tend to be older. It’s no wonder so many young people choose not to vote, thus creating another hurdle.

A picture I took this weekend of an old, solitary tree. I wonder if it worries about it’s seedling’s futures.