Against a backdrop of drastic changes in economy and population structure, younger Americans are drawing a new 21st-century road map to success, a latest poll has found.【最新的民意调查，根据经济和人口结构的剧烈变化的背景下，美国年轻人正在绘制一幅新的21世纪通往成功的路线图。】

Across generational lines, Americans continue to prize many of the same traditional milestones of a successful life, including getting married, having children, owning a home, and retiring in their sixties.【通过几代人，美国人仍然赞成大部分相同的传统成功生活的阶段包括结婚、生子、买房以及在60岁退休。】 But while young and old mostly agree on what constitutes the finish line of a fulfilling life, they offer strikingly different paths for reaching it.【尽管两代人基本都同意充实的生活的最终构成，但是他们提供了完全不同的路径去实现它。】

Young people who are still getting started in life were more likely than older adults to prioritize personal fulfillment in their work, to believe they will advance their careers most by regularly changing jobs, to favor communities with more public services and a faster pace of

life, to agree that couples should be financially secure before getting married or having children, and to maintain that children are best served by two parents working outside the home, the survey found.【调查发现，相对于老一辈人来说年轻一代人处于人生起步会优先考虑工作中的成就感，大多数人相信通过经常更换工作会得到职业晋升，更喜欢提供更多公共服务的社区和更快的生活节奏，同意夫妻在结婚前或生孩子前保证财务安全，父母都出去工作才能维持孩子最好的生活。】

From career to

community and family, these contrasts suggest that in the aftermath of the searing Great Recession, those just starting out in life are defining priorities and expectations that will increasingly spread through virtually all aspects of American life, from consumer preferences to housing patterns to politics.【在大衰退导致后果，这些对立从从职业到社区和家庭，那些刚刚开始生活的年轻人正在确定优先事项和期望事项，这些事项将增速传播几乎所有美国生活的方方面面，从消费者偏好的购房模式到政治。】

Young and old converge on one key point: Overwhelming majorities of both groups said they believe it is harder for young people today to get started in life than it was for earlier generations.【年轻一代和老一代达成共识：这两个人群的绝大多数人认为对于如今刚开始生活的年轻人比前几代人更加困难。】While younger people are somewhat more optimistic than their elders about the prospects for those starting out today, big majorities in both groups believe those “just getting started in life” face a tougher climb than earlier generations in reaching such signpost achievements as securing a good-paying job, managing debt, and finding affordable housing.【尽管年轻一代在起步阶段的前景的某些方面比老一代人更加乐观，但是两代人中绝大多数认为“生活刚刚起步”的人比起前几代人在获得高薪，管理债务和找到负担得起的住房等标志性的成就要面对更困难的攀爬。】

Peter Schneider considers the climb tougher today.【彼得·施耐德认为如今确实在“困难攀爬”。】Schneider, a 27-year-old auto technician from the Chicago suburbs, says he struggled to find a job after graduating from college.【施耐德，一个27岁来自芝加哥汽车技师说，他大学毕业后艰难找到了一份工作。】Even now that he is working steadily, he said, “I can’t afford to pay my monthly mortgage payments on my own, so I have to rent rooms out to people to make that happen.”【就算他现在工作稳定，他说：“我无力支付我的每月房贷，所以我不得不出租房间给其他人以使还贷。”】Look back, he is struck that his parents could provide a comfortable life for their children even though neither had completed college when he was young.【回首往事，他惊讶他的父母能给他们的孩子提供舒适的生活尽管当他们年轻的时候都没有完成大学学业。】”I still grew up in an upper middle-class home with parents who didn’t have college degrees,” Schneider said. “I don’t think people are capable of that anymore.”【“我一直成长在一个中产阶层的家庭，我的父母还没有大学文凭。”施耐德说：“我不认为现在人有能力做得更好。”】