What happens when a generation is raised on economic promises that never materialize? Gen Z may want to ask their older siblings, the millennials, how that turned out, as the Great Recession of 2008—and the ensuing “jobless recovery”—left millions of altered lives, if not dashed dreams, in its wake.
But as the oldest Gen Zers approach the 30-year-old benchmark, the economic habits of a generation who was born during a financial regime change are looking increasingly different from those of the generation that lived through it.
“The economic system their parents are talking to them about isn’t really going to work out for them in the same way,” Lassman explained. Her first taste of economics was the 2008 financial crisis, which hit when she was in elementary school. “Since then it’s been kind of a perpetual crisis,” she said. Gen Z has internalized a mismatch between what they were told about how the economy works and what they’ve experienced much more deeply than is often appreciated, she argued.
“I think there’s this general sense of kids at school and … the content that they’re being exposed to, that things aren’t fitting, that like the economic system they think their parents are talking to them about isn’t really going to work out for them in the same way,” Lassman said.
JD Power has noted that Gen Z is more likely to use buy-now-pay-later services than traditional credit cards, affording them flexibility as they commodify their lives. Despite their affinity towards BNPL, Gen Z seems to be, in line with Lassman’s theory, spending less in general and spending differently than older generations.
“That generation should be increasing spending more than anybody,” Pedersen said, “because they have the highest income growth out of any generation,” but it’s just not happening. He added that while it was “pretty surprising” to see this, any close watcher of Gen Z would expect it as this approach to spending is “pretty pervasive in terms of that generation and some of their habits … what we found overall is that the generation is very, very value-conscious.”
Pederson alluded to “dupe culture,” or Gen Z’s love of cheaper alternatives to luxury goods. “We find that if that generation doesn’t see the value there very quickly, they will very quickly trade down into a dupe, right, or into something that is like what they want, but maybe isn’t as expensive. So it’s all about value, value, value to that generation.” Gen Z disillusionomics, in other words, means they quite literally see past the illusion of luxury fashion into the value they can get from an object. Sustainability and longevity also play a big role in how Gen Z spends their money, he added.
“People are thinking that they’ve lost time, so we’re all kind of panicked about where things are going, also living in a very, very volatile world, politically, socially, economically,” she said.
Lassman told Fortune that she doesn’t think Gen Z is even really aware of how it’s acting, economically, but they are shaping the 21st century as they grow up. “A lot of it is just kind of reactive,” she said. “And so they’re kind of defining their own income streams.”
A version of this story was published on Fortune.com on January 10, 2026.
