来源：《大西洋月刊》2023年5月刊
Between the toll that the Great Recession took on Millennials’ early careers and the college-loan debt that many of them carry, one might expect this generation to be living more precariously than previous ones, with little financial cushion.
大衰退给千禧一代的早期职业生涯造成了损失，他们中的许多人还背负着大学贷款债务，人们可能会认为，这一代人的生活比上一代人更加不稳定，几乎没有经济缓冲。
And there’s at least some truth to that. The Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis made big headlines in 2018 when it announced that among families headed by people born in the 1980s (older Millennials), median wealth was 34 percent lower than what you’d expect based on the wealth of previous generations at the same age. The report, which analyzed data through 2016, theorized that Millennials might be a “lost generation” when it came to wealth.
这至少有一些道理。圣路易斯联邦储备银行在2018年登上了头条新闻，该银行宣布，在以80年代出生的人(年龄较大的千禧一代)为户主的家庭中，财富中位数比前几代人在相同年龄时的财富预期低34%。该报告分析了截至2016年的数据，认为千禧一代在财富方面可能是“失落的一代”。
But when the St. Louis Fed updated its analysis of Millennial wealth a few years later, using 2019 data, it found significant progress. By then, older Millennials lagged only 11 percent behind previous generations at the same age. That progress was uneven: The gap was larger for Millennials without a college degree (19 percent). Younger Millennials (born in the ’90s and still in their mid-20s at the time) also faced a bigger gap. Still, since 2019, both housing and the stock market have increased in value. Recent analysis by the Fed, including data through the middle of 2022, has shown average Millennial wealth to be neck and neck with the wealth of Gen X at the same age.
但几年后，当圣路易斯联邦储备银行使用2019年的数据更新了对千禧一代财富的分析时，发现千禧一代财富水平有重大进展。2019年时，年龄较大的千禧一代只比前几代人在同年龄时的财富水平落后11%。但这种进展是不平衡的：没有大学学位的千禧一代的财富水平较前几代人差距更大(19%)。年轻的千禧一代(出生于90年代，当时年龄还在25岁左右)也面临着更大的差距。尽管如此，自2019年以来，房地产和股市的价值都有所上升。美联储最近的分析(包括截至2022年中期的数据)显示，千禧一代的平均财富与X世代在同一年龄段时的财富不相上下。
Does debt alter this picture? Millennials are without a doubt more heavily burdened by college loans than previous generations. But again, the Fed’s analysis already takes that into account: Its wealth figures net out college loans and other debts.
债务会改变这一局面吗？毫无疑问，千禧一代的大学贷款负担比前几代更重。但同样，美联储的分析已经考虑到了这一点：其财富数据扣除了大学贷款和其他债务。
Even the wealth gap that exists today may mean less than it first appears to. Because more Millennials went to college and graduate school, they started their careers later, on average, than Boomers and Gen Xers did. On those grounds alone, one would expect a lag in wealth building. But more education typically means higher lifetime earnings—and thus stronger savings potential as the years go by. Many Millennials are just entering their peak earning years and have more earning power than the generations before them.
即使是今天存在的贫富差距，其意义也可能比看起来的要小。因为千禧一代上了大学和研究生院的更多，他们开始职业生涯的平均年龄比婴儿潮一代和X世代要晚。仅凭这些理由，就可以预计财富积累会滞后。但更多的教育通常意味着更高的终身收入——因此随着时间的推移，储蓄潜力也会更强。许多千禧一代刚刚进入赚钱的高峰期，比他们之前的几代人有更强的赚钱能力。
Meanwhile, the long trend in American life spans has generally been upward. The high-wage manufacturing jobs that Boomers could count on right out of high school also tended to take a toll on the body over time; the shift toward services and office work enables longer career tails. As the saying goes, 60 is the new 50, and this will benefit Millennials in myriad ways.
与此同时，美国人的寿命总体呈上升趋势。婴儿潮一代高中一毕业就可以指望的高工资制造业工作，随着时间的推移，也往往会对身体造成伤害；向服务业和办公室工作的转变使得职业生涯的尾部更长。俗话说，现在的60岁就是以前的50岁，这将在很多方面给千禧一代带来好处。