This is how you write a compelling lead paragraph:

Younger generations are generally filled with hope and optimism about their future. The newly released iOMe Measure of Millennials finds that 18- to 29-year-olds are not looking at their economic future through rose colored glasses.

The iOMe Challenge was created by a group of “concerned citizens, business leaders and academicians” to survey Millennials, this year on this question: “How do young people in particular feel about all the economic uncertainty in the world today?”

Definitely not optimistic. When asked “How concerned are you about the U.S. financial situation?”, 46 percent said “very” and 33 percent said “moderately.” Which demonstrates that the generation that supposedly is killing newspapers and traditional TV news by their lack of attention to same are nonetheless noticing what’s going on in this country.

When asked how concerned they were about their own personal financial situation, the 46 percent answering “very” was joined by another 27 percent who are “moderately” concerned. Those are good answers as well if they compel those in their 20s to be more financially responsible than those who assumed credit cards were free money.

If you’re an elected official, you’re not likely to like the next part:

Millennials are not at all confident that political leaders can solve the financial issues affecting the country today. Nearly half (46%) say they are Not At All Confident, 27% are Somewhat Confident, 14% are Moderately Confident and only 6% say they are Very Confident that leaders can solve these issues. The remaining 7% are Not Sure. Low levels of confidence in political leaders is a theme that rings loud and clear among many groups in the U.S., especially after the highly intense conflict over the debt ceiling debate last month.

The amusing part that follows is the report that Millennials did not actually pay much attention to the debt ceiling debate. They evidently drew a conclusion from previous experience that Congress and President Obama would play political games and then reach a debt ceiling deal that didn’t solve the debt ceiling problem in the least. And they were, of course, correct.

Not only is confidence in political leaders’ ability to solve economic problems low among Millennials, they also have very low levels of overall political trust in political leaders and demonstrate low levels of political efficacy. These low levels of trust and efficacy, however, are not dramatically out of line with how the public as a whole feels.

The Millennials who are at least 23 got to vote for, depending on where they live, the Dumb and Nastier Eighth Congressional District races between U.S. Rep. Steve Kagen and former Assembly Speaker John Gard. They also have watched Guy Zima, the Green Bay alderman and Brown County supervisor who has spent his entire career believing he’s a Chicago alderman. Most of them voted for Barack Obama for president and Democrats to support him because of what Obama was supposed to represent and despite Obama’s lack of qualifications to be president. “Very low levels” of trust are too high.

So who’s going to fix this mess?

There is not a clear consensus among Millennials on who they trust most to handle economic problems in the U.S. Less than a quarter (22%) say they trust President Obama the most, 14% say Republicans in Congress, 12% say Democrats in Congress, 6% say Tea Party supporters in Congress, 37% say they are Not Sure who they trust and 9% gave other responses from Jesus to Ron Paul, to Santa Claus.

That 6-percent number is a bit interesting given that the tea party is the organization that brought to everyone’s attention the appalling state of federal finances when Obama and Democrats in Congress were perfectly fine with the ballooning deficit. The question does say “Tea Party supporters in Congress,” which could be either a comment about the tea party or about those in Congress who claim to support it.

The Green Bay Press–Gazette adds:

David Wegge, executive director of the college’s research institute, said the survey results indicate that young adults believe solutions are better found in getting directly involved in community needs rather than relying on state or federal officials to make a difference.

That may be the best news of all in the survey. We voters have been fed a line from both parties saying that you vote for them and they’ll solve all of our problems ranging from the $14 trillion federal debt to bad breath. The result has been ever growing government in every possible way (cost-wise, power-wise and otherwise), while our problems only get worse. And instead of my high school  classmates on Facebook who seem to have a childlike faith in government (something that must be in the People’s Republic of Madison’s water), if the survey is accurate, Millennials appear to have paid attention in church when Psalm 146:3 was read: “Put not your trust in princes, nor in the son of man, in whom there is no help.”

Based on this survey, which is of course just one measure, instead of, as with my generation, whining about their awful lives, Millennials seem to realize that (1) those in government are increasingly not competent enough to deal with today’s problems, but (2) they themselves have to power to address problems they themselves can solve, which is at the closest level to themselves. Or, to use another generation’s phrase, act locally.