Wide Majorities of Americans See Their Nation in Decline

A new set of polls shows American citizens gazing toward the future with pessimism about everything from the economy and politics to wealth and their standing in the world. Released by Pew Research Center, the polling asked more than 5,000 American adults about their opinion of the country and what they forecast for the next 25 years. Large margins see a weaker economy, a diminished nation, and political tribalism only becoming more entrenched. Two out of three Americans see a weaker economy by 2050. By a margin of 71 percent to 27 percent, they said America will be “less important in the world.” When asked if they think the country will be more politically divided in 2050 than today, 77 percent answered in the affirmative. Of all respondents, 81 percent feel that the already wide chasm of wealth inequality will grow even larger. Beyond their grim predictions for the future, Americans also hold some reverence for past prosperity. According to the poll, 58 percent said that life is better “for people like them” today than it was 50 years ago. Pew has conducted research like this in the past that yielded pessimistic answers from respondents, but it has never been quite so extreme. When the firm conducted a similar poll in 2018, just 60 percent of Americans said their country would be less important in the world, 73 percent said wealth inequality would grow, and 65 percent said the country would be more divided by 2050. It is a marked rise in negative outlooks in five years. In the 2018 survey, researchers found that white Americans were more pessimistic than Hispanic and Black respondents. Five years ago, just 51 percent of white Americans said they were somewhat or very optimistic about the country’s future, compared to 67 percent of Hispanics and 70 percent of Blacks. The research shows that there is bipartisan agreement on the dim future for America. Just 10 percent of Republicans and 15 percent of Democrats say they have “quite a lot” of confidence about the country’s future. Just 12 percent of independent voters feel that way. Overall, 66 percent of Democrats have at least some confidence, compared to 56 percent of Republicans and 60 percent of independents. In the last year, Americans of all political parties have lost some degree of confidence in the nation’s future, with Republican hopes for a better world by 2050 dropping by six points in the last year and Democrats’ hopes dropping by eight points. Depending on when they were born, Democrats are starkly divided on their level of confidence in the United States. For registered Democrats over the age of 50, 80 percent have at least some confidence in the future, but just 53 percent of Democrats between the ages of 18 and 35 feel the same. Education and wealth also play an important role in one’s level of confidence, with college graduates being much more optimistic than those with a high school degree or less. Three in four Americans from wealthier households feel at least somewhat confident, compared with 60 percent of those in the middle class and 53 percent of low-income respondents.

Wide Majorities of Americans See Their Nation in Decline

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