Gen Z’s 'Disillusionomics': How Young Adults Are Fighting Debt by Turning Life Into Multiple Income Streams
What happens when a generation grows up believing in economic promises that never come true? Gen Z is now confronting that question head-on, much like millennials did after the 2008 financial crisis and its prolonged “jobless recovery,” which reshaped countless lives and expectations.
Gen Z is redefining money habits through “disillusionomics,” rejecting traditional financial rules as they juggle record debt, multiple income streams, and deep skepticism about the modern economy.
As the oldest members of Gen Z near their late 20s, their financial behavior is beginning to look markedly different from that of millennials, who experienced the Great Recession as young adults. Born during a period of major economic transformation, Gen Z has developed habits shaped by instability rather than recovery.
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Often labeled “doom spenders,” many Gen Zers are known for spending hundreds on concert tickets or international trips, reinforcing the so-called “YOLO economy” that took shape around 2021 during the meme-stock boom. At the same time, their average personal debt stands at $94,101—higher than millennials at $59,181 and Gen X at $53,255.
While these patterns could be dismissed as youthful financial recklessness, economist and author Alice Lassman argues there is something deeper at play. A British Gen Zer herself, Lassman has written about her own frustration after a position she expected at USAID following her studies at Columbia failed to materialize. She describes her generation’s economic mindset as “disillusionomics,” a coping framework for navigating an unpredictable and confusing financial future.
Lassman expanded on this idea in an October 2025 piece for The Guardian and later told Fortune that she coined the term while trying to identify the common thread connecting many Gen Z trends. She believes much of how society interprets her generation can be traced back to this shared economic outlook.
According to Lassman, Gen Z’s rejection of traditional financial advice goes beyond merely coming of age during crisis, as millennials did. Many Gen Zers were still children during the 2008 crash and are now even more doubtful about long-term stability. Research from Harvard Kennedy School’s Institute of Politics shows they are significantly more skeptical about their economic prospects than earlier generations.
Lassman explained that the economic system described by parents and institutions no longer feels realistic to young people. Her own introduction to economics came during the 2008 crisis, when she was still in primary school. Since then, she says, crisis has been constant. Gen Z, she argues, has deeply absorbed the disconnect between what they were taught about how the economy should work and what they have actually experienced.
This sense of mismatch is reinforced by what young people encounter in school and online, where it becomes increasingly clear that traditional economic pathways may not deliver the same outcomes they once did.
Fading Faith in the Promised Future
Traditional milestones such as owning a home, starting a family, and retiring comfortably feel out of reach for many. Last year, unemployment among 16- to 24-year-olds reached 10.8%, compared with 4.3% overall. One in three Gen Zers believes they will never own a home, and many are reconsidering whether to have children at all.
For Lassman, this disillusionment explains why Gen Z is abandoning established rules and growing distrustful of institutions like government, media, and corporations. While her thinking overlaps with the idea of “economic nihilism”—a term popularized by entrepreneur Demetri Kofinas and writer Kyla Scanlon—Lassman emphasizes what she calls the “late-stage commodification of everything.”
Using Airbnb as an example, she notes how the idea of monetizing spare space has been pushed to extremes. Practices like “house hacking,” where renters lease larger apartments and sublet rooms, reflect a generation intent on squeezing income from every possible angle. Content creation, she adds, is often viewed as a form of passive income rather than just self-expression.
As Kyla Scanlon recently wrote in The Wall Street Journal, when traditional paths narrow, people seek alternatives with the potential for high upside, even if the risks are substantial. Treating the economy like a game, she argued, signals that conventional definitions of success no longer feel attainable.
Lassman also pointed out that Gen Z is more inclined to use buy-now-pay-later services instead of credit cards, allowing greater flexibility as they monetize different aspects of their lives. Despite this, they are generally spending less—and differently—than older generations.
PwC’s global retail leader Kelly Pedersen told Fortune he was struck by how restrained Gen Z’s spending has become. He estimated their holiday-season spending fell by 10% to 12% compared with the prior year, a decline he described as significant.
Pedersen noted that Gen Z should theoretically be spending more than any other generation due to their strong income growth, yet that increase has not materialized. While surprising on the surface, he said the trend aligns with Gen Z’s deeply ingrained value-conscious habits.
He also referenced “dupe culture,” Gen Z’s preference for cheaper alternatives to luxury goods. If they fail to see immediate value, Pedersen explained, they quickly opt for less expensive substitutes. For this generation, value outweighs brand prestige, and considerations like sustainability and durability strongly influence purchasing decisions.
Cracks Beneath the Surface
Lassman observed that Gen Z sometimes exhibits what she described as “hostile” attitudes, including a greater willingness to shoplift both in-store and online, often rationalized as stealing from corporations perceived as able to absorb losses. Others adopt zero-sum views of resources in an increasingly competitive job market.
Gen Z is also more prone to age and money dysmorphia—a persistent feeling of falling behind financially. Short-term financial fads and coping behaviors, such as “treat culture” or quick-yield dividend strategies, function as both practical and psychological survival tools during an affordability crisis.
Many feel they have lost time and are anxious about the future, Lassman said, especially while navigating a world marked by political, social, and economic volatility.
Economic nihilism has become another response to a system viewed as unrewarding to long-term planning. By gamifying money through prediction markets, sports betting, and cryptocurrency, Gen Z is carving out new ways to survive—and even thrive—within an economy they do not fully trust.
Lassman told Fortune she believes much of Gen Z’s economic behavior is reactive rather than deliberate. Still, she said, the generation is quietly shaping the 21st-century economy by defining its own income streams, often without fully realizing the scale of what it is doing.
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