I was reading a survey by Yahoo! Finance.  As we know, Yahoo is a troubled public company that owns the highly-popular web portal, Yahoo!  A related website is an excellent financial research tool, called Yahoo! Finance. 

Although not discussed in the survey, I would expect Internet users of the portal would be younger and more technically proficient than the general population.  Further, I would expect users of their financial website would also be more financially aware than the general population.  That suggests a more optimistic sample for this survey, maybe even the best and brightest?

Yet, over 40% believe the “American dream” is out-of-reach for them.  One-third believe their financial situation is poor.  One-third have less savings now than last year.  37% have no retirement savings and plan to live on Social Security alone.

63% think the U.S. economy is doing worse, which is clearly untrue.  62% have serious concern for their own job security, while 90% are worried about overall unemployment.  Only one of four are confident the government has any ability to fix the economy. 

Because my circle of friends is older and more affluent, it was shocking to see such despair among the young, technically proficient, and financially aware.  Maybe, the air becomes too thin as our comfort level rises, but the loss of the “American dream” is a great loss indeed . . . for the whole world!

While I am thankful, I also feel confident there is nothing wrong with these young Americans that a good, long bull market wouldn’t fix . . . at least, I hope so!