Stability We Can’t Deliver

Gen Z and the End of Predictable Progress by Kyla Scanlon
February 19, 2025

The viral Gen Z economist Kyla Scanlon’s writing has become a must-read source for capturing how young people make sense of the world. This essay, “Gen Z and the End of Predictable Progress,” is based on her experience touring for her book, In This Economy: How Money & Markets Really Work, a zeitgeist-y primer on the contemporary economy. Thinking through how Scanlon and other members of her generation understand their social and economic superstructure – what Scanlon frames as a “double disruption” — is vital for school leaders, especially in independent schools. In this essay, Scanlon explores “how younger people experience the economy, especially in the age of technology and AI and perhaps an evolving government (and changing social contracts?) and how it's reshaping who they become.” In short, it’s a bleak picture of uncertainty, anxiety, and risk calibration. She then compares this generation’s perspective to previous generation’s, noting how unique this moment actually is in terms of young people’s perceptions of their future prospects. What truly distinguishes Scanlon’s analysis is her attempt to make sense of what is, as she poignantly frames it in her essay’s conclusion, “a generation's attempt to navigate a world where institutions promise stability they can't deliver, where algorithms offer opportunity without security, and where the very nature of work and worth is being redefined.” For educators tasked with preparing students for this precarious future, navigating a current moment in which “the very nature of self [is] being called into question” is certainly a tall order. Scanlon’s insight and perspective about economics, politics, culture, and young people’s sense-making about their futures are a necessary, sober read for educators.