The past year of politics has been defined by one issue: affordability. From the rise of socialists promising to use government power to lower the cost of living, to conservative debates over whether a burrito should cost $20, to continued anxiety over grocery and gas prices, the economy is poised to become the defining issue of the 2026 midterm elections. 

Yet as these debates rage, Americans are reaching record levels of international travel and passport applications. The trend is driven not only by wealthier and older Americans, but by Gen Z, the same generation at the center of today’s affordability debate. 

It is a startling contradiction that raises an uncomfortable question: What do young Americans really mean when they say they cannot afford to live?

According to the Wall Street Journal, Americans took a record 24 million trips to Europe in the year 2025, and that number is expected to increase by another five percent this year. Behind the increase travel, is a "supercharged" economy where Americans now view travel as an essential part of life, rather than a luxury. In other words, travel for the United States is no longer a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

The trend is also reflected in the sharply rising number of Americans with passports. In 1990, just 5 percent of Americans held a passport. Today, more than half do. The United States even issued a record 27 million passports in fiscal year 2025.

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So what does Gen Z mean when it says life is unaffordable? 

To be clear, government has done plenty to erroneously drive up the cost of living, particularly when it comes to home prices, rent, healthcare, and higher education. Washington has also made a habit of redistributing wealth from younger Americans to older, wealthier generations through programs such as Social Security and Obamacare, a pattern older Americans rarely acknowledge. 

But Gen Z increasingly appears to want more than just the ability to afford life’s necessities. It wants the ability to afford an expansive lifestyle, too.

Wanting more is not, in itself, a bad thing. Americans are becoming wealthier, and the standard of living is quietly, but drastically improving. But younger Americans should acknowledge what they can afford today that their grandparents could not. Yes, earlier generations could more easily afford a home. But they could not afford to spend a summer traveling through Europe, eat out constantly, or gamble everything on living in an expensive city like New York.

And while we can, and should, criticize young Americans when they mistake abundance for deprivation, it is equally important to remember that what remains out of reach is often more important than what they can afford. Buying a home, obtaining medical care, and attending college are not luxuries; they are foundational parts of a stable and successful life. 

The goal should not be to deny younger Americans the travel, convenience, and opportunities their grandparents never enjoyed. It should be to make the building blocks of adulthood affordable again, too. Better saving habits and a reassessment of priorities could mitigate some of these challenges. But many of the costs young Americans face have also been artificially inflated by reckless government policies. 

Whatever one thinks of Gen Z, those barriers should be removed, and policymakers should work to bring prices down.