How much of that financial anxiety is caused by would-be grandparents taking a "you're on your own, kid" attitude to their children and then wondering why they choose to focus on career instead of reproduction?
Far be it from me to cover for the Boomers’ greedy shortsightedness, but iirc we’re now at 52% of 18-29 year olds living at home and a large percentage of young married couples being DINKs (dual income, no kids). And current day Boomers poll fairly solidly against stuff like NAFTA and offshoring.
So imo, it’s not 2020s grandkid-wanting Boomers/GenX going “you’re on your own, kid” so much as it’s their greedy younger selves getting manipulated into mortgaging their eventual children’s future away in the 80s and 90s.
A distinction without a difference I guess, but the root of this problem stems from the Reagan/Clinton eras and not many people seem interested in discussing how we can successfully roll back some of the more egregious anti-worker legal/regulatory changes from those days.
Sort of agree with this, I feel that way about the hippies of the 60's though. Watching videos of them sitting around in Golden Gate Park narcissistically talking about how they are disillusioned with their parents' work ethic and they don't align with traditional values (like hard work). It's like watching a group of people throw away their generational inheritance and complaining about having too much free time and easy money.
There's a lot to admire in the boomers I think, they had a great culture, and they contributed a massive amount of technological and scientific progress as well. But agree they never had the competition these newer generations are facing and so did not do enough to prepare their kids for a more competitive world (I mean, some did, but not enough).
My understanding of the disillusionment with the hard work ethic stems from the question of "toward which goal?" Hard work for the sake of having worked hard is how your boss gets rich, from that view.
I like your analysis. It passes the gut check, unlike the garbage that assumes that it's all personal responsibility that can magically be solved today through better choices. It doesn't matter much what choices the Boomers/X make today, as the damage was done long before the general public recognized there would be problems.
