“Clearly, even though unemployment is falling and growth is returning after the financial<br />crisis, this pessimism raises questions about whether this is a temporary phenomenon.”<br />The Pew Research Center, a nonprofit, nonpartisan think tank, surveyed people in 32 countries this year and found<br />that overall sentiment about the current economic situation had rebounded sharply from postrecession lows.<br />“Even in advanced economies where people think they are doing well, like Germany, the Netherlands<br />and Sweden, they are worried about their kids’ financial prospects,” said Bruce Stokes, director of global economic attitudes at Pew.<br />In France, more than 70 percent of respondents said they doubted<br />that their children would be better off financially, with a similarly bleak outlook reported in Britain, Spain, Italy and Germany.<br />In Britain, where voters shocked political leaders at home<br />and abroad last June by voting to exit the European Union, 51 percent approve of the state of the economy, a figure nearly unchanged from 2015, while 24 percent think the next generation would do better.<br />Still, even in Germany, only 36 percent think their children will be better off; the figure in France is 9 percent.<br />“We in the West have always thought the future would be better, and we invested in it and saved for it,” Mr. Stokes said.<br />Western Nations Worry That Children Won’t Be Better Off -<br />By NELSON D. SCHWARTZJUNE 5, 2017<br />The present is getting better.
