Generational Differences In Attitudes Toward Deficit Reduction Policy

In an effort to understand the generation gap as it is manifested in attitudes toward current tax policy, this study compares survey responses from experienced tax professionals and inexperienced undergraduate tax students applied to the most effective tax and budgetary changes to reduce the federal deficit. The authors created the survey from tax students’ suggestions after a semester (Spring 2011) of reading tax-related articles in an international business journal. At the end of that semester, the authors requested suggestions from students for changes to the federal tax code (revenue) and budget (spending) and incorporated them into a survey to which students during that semester and the next two semesters responded. In July 2012, the authors asked a group of experienced tax professionals to respond to the survey. The authors found significant variation in a few predictable areas. Results include findings that the Millennial generation is less conservative on social issues, and favors Social Security reform and reduced defense spending.