U.S. consumers anxious, Chinese optimistic

At least we’re not alone.

A new global survey shows that most European consumers, like us, are insecure, anxious and feeling strapped for cash.

In its 11th annual Consumer Sentiment Survey, done last month and covering 16 countries and 15,000 consumers, The Boston Consulting Group found that:

– Feelings of financial insecurity are high, and getting higher.

– Pessimism about the speed of the economic recovery is widespread.

– One in four Americans and Europeans are worried about losing their job.

– Only in China are children expected to have a better life than their parents.

Another interesting point on China: Consumers there are more optimistic about the future than Westerners.

“If you take the world from the perspective of the middle-class citizen in the U.S. and Western Europe, we are still lurching from crisis to crisis,” said Michael Silverson, a partner with BCG.  “Americans, in particular, are anxious about their future, their jobs and their lack of savings.”

Europeans are worried about “continuing turmoil” and “government failure to deal with root causes as major concerns.”

No surprise, the Germans and Swiss were more optimistic about future spending than their Southern neighbors in Greece, Italy and Spain.

The Chinese, meanwhile, think their world “will be bright over the next decade.”