Generation Y's goal? Wealth and fame

Ask young people about their generation's top life goals and the answer is clear and resounding: They want to be rich and famous.
By Sharon Jayson, USA TODAY

"When you open a celebrity magazine, it's all about the money and being rich and famous," says 22-year-old Cameron Johnson of Blacksburg, Va. "The TV shows we watch — anything from The Apprentice where the intro to the show is the 'money song' — to Us Weekly magazine where you see all the celebrities and their $6 million homes. We see reality TV shows with Jessica and Nick living the life. We see Britney and Paris. The people we relate to outside our friends are those people."

Eighty-one percent of 18- to 25-year-olds surveyed in a Pew Research Center poll released today said getting rich is their generation's most important or second-most-important life goal; 51% said the same about being famous.

In an annual survey of college freshmen by the Higher Education Research Institute at the University of California-Los Angeles, 2005 data show that money is much more on their minds than in the past. The percentage who say it is "essential" or "very important" to be "very well off financially" grew from 41.9% in 1967 to 74.5% in 2005; "developing a meaningful philosophy of life" dropped in importance from 85.8% in 1967 to 45% in 2005.

See:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-01-09-gen-y-cover_x.htm and Gen Y's attitudes differ from parents'