[ The radicalism of my generation is often attributed to housing
costs. But, as I found when I had my first child, there are much
deeper issues at play]
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MILLENNIALS AREN’T GETTING MORE RIGHTWING WITH AGE. I SUSPECT I
KNOW WHY  
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Arwa Mahdawi
January 3, 2023
The Guardian
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_ The radicalism of my generation is often attributed to housing
costs. But, as I found when I had my first child, there are much
deeper issues at play _

The cost of housing is one of a litany of problems putting pressure
on millennials’ pockets, reflected here in the work of Aida Wilde.,
Photograph: Katharine Rose/Alamy

 

Chewing gum. Napkins. Thongs. Over the past decade, millennials have
been accused of killing off a dizzying variety of things
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And despite the fact that some of them are now approaching middle age
and the world has turned its attention to the shenanigans of gen Z, it
looks as though millennials still have a taste for murder. Their
victim this time? Conservatism.

Historically, people tend to become less liberal as they age: the Che
Guevara posters come down and conversations about home improvements
replace debates about social improvements. But millennials are bucking
that trend.

The shift is remarkable. According to an analysis by the Financial
Times
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millennials were following previous trends, someone aged 35 would be
about five percentage points less conservative than the national
average and would gradually become more conservative. The reality,
says the FT? “They’re more like 15 points less conservative, and
in both Britain and the US are by far the least conservative
35-year-olds in recorded history.”

I know what you’re thinking, because I thought it too. You’re
thinking home ownership is largely to blame. (Perhaps you were
thinking about what to have for dinner, in which case I apologise.) As
we know, millennials spend all their money on avocado toast
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takeaway coffee, meaning that they have lagged behind other
generations when it comes to owning their own home. If they had
mortgages to pay and property prices to protect, they would probably
be a lot more conservative, right?

Turns out it isn’t as simple as that. John Burn-Murdoch, who
authored the FT analysis, tweeted
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“If Millennials owned homes at the same rate as boomers did at that
age, they would be a couple of points more conservative, but only a
couple.”

There are deeper issues at play. “The most likely explanation is a
cohort effect – that millennials have developed different values to
previous generations, shaped by experiences unique to them, and they
do not feel conservatives share these,” wrote Burn-Murdoch. To put
this in my own, blunter, terms: millennials have been royally screwed
by an inequitable economic system and a runaway climate crisis. Only
an idiot with loads of money would be happy with the way things are.

For the record, I am not an idiot with loads of money. I’m 39, which
makes me a geriatric millennial
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and I certainly haven’t gotten more conservative as I’ve aged.

Perhaps what has pushed me more to the left than anything else is
having a child; specifically, the ridiculous cost of having a child. I
always knew childcare was going to be expensive, but _[insert string
of __expletives here]_. The nursery in Philadelphia that my
19-month-old goes to costs just under $2,000 (£1,680) a month for
care from 9am to 3pm. This is actually reasonable compared with the
cost of childcare in New York City, where I used to live.

My partner and I have had conversations about having a second kid, but
I don’t know how we would afford it. It’s not just nursery to
think about: university tuition fees have rocketed, as has the cost of
living. A second child has become a luxury item.

I’m certain that childcare costs have radicalised a generation of
new parents. If the Republican party in the US and the Tory party in
the UK had any desire to woo millennial voters, they would support
their chat about family values with family-friendly policies. Instead,
they’re doing the opposite.

On Sunday, the Telegraph reported that Rishi Sunak – a man who owns
four luxury houses and has never had to worry about the price of
daycare – has shelved plans
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overhaul England’s childcare system and make it more affordable.
Across the Atlantic, abortion-obsessed Republicans are more concerned
with forcing people to have children than making it easier to look
after them.

While this is all horribly grim, there is a glimmer of hope: the kids
are all right and my fellow millennials are sticking stubbornly to the
left.

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_Arwa Mahdawi is a Guardian columnist_

* Millenials
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* Radicalism
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* Rebellion
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