I sorted through my rupturing inbox a few weeks ago and came across an interesting tidbit. The Institute of Politics (IOP) at Harvard Kennedy School released the results of their Harvard Youth Poll, a nationwide survey of over 2,000 young Americans between the ages of 18 and 29, which was conducted in March 2024.
Among the multitude of questions posed to respondents was an interesting exercise. The polling format ‘identified 16 prominent areas of concern and asked survey respondents in a series of randomized matchups which one of two paired issues was more important to them.’ These prominent domains ranged from student debt to inflation to immigration and to protecting democracy, to name a few. You can see the results here if you’re interested.
It may come as no surprise that economic concerns (defined broadly as ‘inflation’) were viewed as the most important issue against 14/15 of the other domains it was pitted against. After all, what could be more important to America’s youth then being able to get a job, pay the rent and make their own way in the world. The only domain that inflation lost to in a head-to-head matchup? Women’s reproductive rights.
The only other domain that was as dominant in a head-to-head matchup against other choices was ‘healthcare’ (what the broad term encompasses is unclear). Again, it was rated as the most important issue in 14/15 paired matchups, losing out only to – you guessed it – inflation.
Why are thousands of American youths more concerned about healthcare than, say, protecting democracy? Or student debt? Or free speech? Or immigration? Why are people, the overwhelming majority of whom likely have no chronic diseases, have probably rarely visited a doctor themselves, and are presumably healthy overall, so concerned about healthcare?
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