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But as the oldest members of Gen Z approach the 30-year mark, the economic habits of a generation born during a financial regime shift look increasingly different from those of the generation that lived through it.

Zoomers are also called “the spenders,” spending hundreds of dollars on concert tickets or international travel, bolstering the “YOLO economy” that emerged in 2021 amid the meme stock craze. debtthe highest of any generation and much higher than millennials ($59,181) and Gen X ($53,255).

This could be easily amortized because the financial consequences mismanagement of youth, but taken as a whole, generation Z outlook on the economy is both a rejection of received ideas and a deep, almost unconscious absorption in the commodification of everything. Economist and author Alice Lasmana Gen Zer (British) herself, wrote for Business Insider about her personal disillusionment after her time at Columbia led to a verbal offer, later rescinded, to become an economist at USAID. She calls Gen Z’s approach to economic life “disillusiononomy,” or a way to cope with an uncertain and mystifying financial future.

Lassman wrote about his theory for the Tutor in October 2025, and told Fortune that she coined the term herself. “I actually spent a while trying to understand this general trend, or this general connection that connected a lot of the disparate Gen Z trends that we were seeing.” She said she thinks much of the way people relate to her generation has to do with this underlying economic phenomenon.

Gen Z’s rejection of traditional financial prudence runs deeper than coming of age during an economic crisis, like their millennial counterparts, she said. Fortune in an interview. As some members are still in college, they are much younger than the millennials of 2008 and are more numerous. skeptical on their financial future, according to the Institute of Politics at the Harvard Kennedy School.

“The economic system that their parents tell them about isn’t really going to work for them in the same way,” Lassman said. Her first taste of economics was the 2008 financial crisis, which hit while she was in what the British call primary school. “Since then, it’s been a kind of perpetual crisis,” she says. Generation Z has internalized a disconnect between what they were told about how the economy works and what they experienced much more deeply than we often imagine, she argued.

“I think there’s this general feeling among kids in school and … the content that they’re exposed to, that things aren’t working for them, that like the economic system that they think their parents are telling them about, isn’t really going to work for them in the same way,” Lassman said.

Lack of confidence in the future promised to them

Familiar markers of stability, like homeownership, family, and retirement, seem unattainable. The unemployment rate for 16-24 year olds reached 10.8% last year compared to 4.3% in total. A third of Generation Z said they believe they will never own a home and many are considering doing so. give up have children. Disillusionment, for Lassman, explains why Generation Z no longer follows the rules as they grow older in their mistrust institutions such as government, media and business.

While alluding to “economic nihilism,” a term coined by entrepreneur Demetri Kofinas and made famous by influential Substacker Kyla Scanlon, Lassman said his theory of disillusiononomy has to do with the “late commodification of anything.” Riffing how Airbnb pushed a model of turning a spare room into more income, she said, “Gen Z has taken that logic to the max” with their habit of “house hacking,” or renting an apartment larger than they need, carving it up and renting out rooms. She sees a generation constantly looking to diversify their sources of income and viewing content creation as a sort of passive income.

“When all conventional avenues narrow, people start looking for alternatives. And in practice, that means looking to the few places where real upside potential still seems possible, even if the risks are high.” Scanlon recently wrote in the Wall Street Journal. “When people start to view economics as a game, it’s a sign that the traditional ways of winning no longer seem real.”

Lassman noted that Gen Z is more likely to use buy now, pay later services than traditional credit cards, which provides them flexibility in commodifying their lives. Despite their affinity for BNPL, Generation Z appears, consistent with Lassman’s theory, to spend less in general and spend differently than older generations.

“You know, Gen Z is so interesting,” PwC Global Retail Leader Kelly Pedersen said Fortunewondering how little they spend as they get older. He estimated that Gen Z spent 10% to 12% during the recent holiday season compared to the previous year. “The fact that their spending is decreasing as much as they claim is pretty significant,” she said.

“This generation should be increasing their spending more than anyone else,” Pedersen said, “because they have the highest income growth of any generation,” but that’s simply not happening. He added that while it was “pretty surprising” to see this, any careful observer of Gen Z would expect it because this approach to spending is “pretty pervasive when it comes to this generation and some of their habits…what we’ve seen 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’re finding that if this generation doesn’t see the value very quickly, they’ll turn into a dupe very quickly, right, or into something that looks like what they want, but maybe isn’t as expensive. So for this generation, it’s all about value, value, value.” In other words, Gen Z’s disillusiononomy means that they literally see beyond the illusion of luxury fashion to the value they can derive from an item. Sustainability and longevity also play an important role in how Gen Z spends their money, he added.

Trouble in paradise

Generation Z also displays “hostile” attitudes, Lassman said, being increasingly prone to in-person or in-person shoplifting. online because they feel like they are justified to steal from businesses that can absorb the loss. Others fall into zero-sum thinking on resources and in an increasingly competitive labor market.

They are also more likely to face age and financial dysmorphiaLassman said, a need to feel like they’re still playing catch-up. Short-term financial trends and coping mechanisms such as treal culture and fast-returning dividend investments are material and psychological “survival strategies” for managing life in an affordability crisis.

“People think they’ve wasted time, so we’re all a little panicked about where things are going, and we also live in a very, very unstable world, politically, socially and economically,” she said.

Economic nihilism is another strong reaction to an economy that some say does not reward long-term planning. By gamifying their finances with prediction markets, sports betting and cryptocurrencies, Generation Z is creating new opportunities to build their lives in a system that they believe does not serve them.

Lassman said Fortune that she doesn’t think Generation Z is truly conscious of their economic behavior, but that they are shaping the 21st century as they grow up. “A lot of these measures are just reactive,” she said. “And so they kind of define their own revenue streams.”