Kerby Anderson

Lots of myths surround the millennial generation. We even spend some time on the radio during our millennial roundtable debunking many of them. Perhaps the most significant prevailing myth is that millennials are broke.

Sociologist Jean Twenge takes on “The Myth of the Broke Millennial” in her extensive article in The Atlantic. This isn’t just a myth that others have about this generation. It is a myth they have about themselves. One author complains about their plight in her book, OK Boomers, Let’s Talk: How My Generation Got Left Behind. She says her generation is responding “with desperation and sometimes anger.”

To her surprise, Jean Twenge responds, “Millennials, as a group, are not broke—they are, in fact, thriving economically. That wasn’t true a decade ago, and prosperity within the generation today is not evenly shared. But since the mid-2010s, Millennials on the whole have made a breathtaking financial comeback.”

The great recession of 2008 was hard on American incomes, especially young millennials, who were just entering the job market. But the millennial income rebound has been both broad and steep.

Two groups that have not done as well are men and people with less education. Millennial men have not seen the income increases that millennial women enjoy (in part because of the gap in educational attainment). That points to the other gap: the income gap between millennials with a college degree and those with only a high school diploma.

In one of his commentaries, John Stonestreet explains that the true crisis for millennials isn’t a financial one. It’s a crisis of meaning and purpose. Once again, this is where the gospel provides the answer. The Bible provides a true foundation for meaning and purpose.