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French pessimism rules the world
Global attitudes survey shows French have the strongest belief that their children will be worse off than their parents
FRANCE has the highest level of pessimism in the world according to a new global attitudes survey - and Britain is not far behind.
When given the question ‘When children today grow up will the be worse off/better off financially than their parents?’, 85% of French people respondents replied ‘worse off’.
The pessimistic response is highest among most developed nations which on average record 64% for ‘worse off’, compared to 27% for better off. (A voluntary category for ‘the same’ was not included in the figures).
The British rank as slightly more pessimistic than average with 68%, but France’s figure puts it clearly in the lead, well ahead of second-place Japan at 72%.
France’s score prompted the Nouvel Observateur to comment: “If economic success depends on the mentality of a country, this is definitely bad news.”
The figures come from the Pew Research Centre’s Spring 2015 Global Attitudes Survey.
It found that optimism is strongest in emerging (26% pessimistic vs 51% optimistic) and developing nations (38% pessimistic vs 54% optimistic).
The Vietnamese are the world’s most optimistic nation, with just 7% believing their children will be worse off compared to 91% who believe they will be better off.
Photo:Flickr/Ramón Ivanovich Lopez
