Harvard Asked Gen Z How It’s Going and They Said Delete the System

Harvard’s Youth Poll basically confirmed what your group chat has been screaming since 2020 the system feels like a subscription you never signed up for, and it keeps raising the price.

Young adults are staring down economic “instability” (their word) while rent does that cute thing where it eats half your paycheck and still has the audacity to ask for a pet deposit. They’re not just stressed, they’re detached like “oh cool, democracy, is that still running or did it get acquired by a private equity firm?”

The poll shows collapsing trust in basically every institution that ever told you to “work hard” then handed your job to an algorithm with a fake smile. Political parties? Media? Government? The vibe is less “patriotism” and more “who exactly is this for, because it’s not me.”

And it’s not just feelings. This hits whether you take a job you hate because health insurance is basically a ransom note. Whether you move back home because “building equity” now means “sharing a bathroom with your childhood self.” Whether you even bother voting because the menu is always two flavors of “sorry, best we can do is incremental suffering.”

Meanwhile, the people in charge keep acting shocked that a generation raised on receipts is asking for receipts.