July 3, 2023
America’s Youth Have a Problem
By Peter Lucas
According to over a dozen student journalists, these are some of the most important issues facing the US, including climate change, health care, child labor, and LGBTQ+ rights.
In March, a poll from The Wall Street Journal and NORC found that just 23 percent of people under 30 found patriotism to be “very important” to them, compared to 60 percent of those 65 and older. But what’s the biggest issue facing the country? For young people, there isn’t a clear answer.
According to a survey from Deloitte, around half of Generation Z and millennials are living paycheck to paycheck, a plurality work multiple jobs, and over a third say that they feel stressed “all or most of the time.” America’s youth have a problem: The country is waging a war against them. Republicans are banning books, blocking gender-affirming care, and bringing back child labor. The Supreme Court has ruled against affirmative action and student loan cancellation. Since 2018, there have been over 150 school shootings across the country, and legislators have no good ideas on how to stop them.
For the Fourth of July, we asked a dozen StudentNation writers to discuss what matters to them most.
