interesting hypothesis, but my subjective rebuttal is that nearly all of my friends would readily admit that they'd be perfectly content with building a life similar to that of their parents. most kids just don't think it's possible.

i asked in the parent comment if this is a normal thing? my parents were immigrants, so they don't have the experience of growing up here. it's always been an uphill battle. perhaps i've inherited that mentality but i wonder if americans of previous generations were also 23 and cynical, never thinking it possible to afford building a comfortable life?

That may be a component, but I think another thing that contributes is that unlike Gen X which still somewhat bought into the "American dream", many Millennials and Gen Z watched their parents struggle and ultimately burn out growing up and decided they don't want their lives to be like that. Why constantly stress and sacrifice enjoying today for the sake of an almost entirely fictional tomorrow?

I think the FOMO and enhanced hyper consumerism it enables contributes, but the actual macroeconomic factors around wage growth, etc. are the real problem.

Ah yes, dramatically unrealistic, like functioning public transport, or affordable healthcare, or OWNING A PLACE TO LIVE

The productivity of labor. Which is simply revenue per hour of labor. When people talk about the increase in worker productivity, that measurement is simply GDP divided by number of hours worked in the economy.

That number has gone up recently, and many people who don’t know what productivity is actually measuring like to comment on the fact that the increase is productivity hasn’t been met with an increase in wages. But that increase has been driven by technology, and the people who are responsible for that increase in productivity capture the value. The people who sell the technology, not the people who sell the labor.

Skilled labor isn’t new, and it’s not what’s driven the increase in productivity. I can implement useful computer programs today far faster than Dennis Ritchie could in the 70s, even though he’s far more skilled than I am. That difference in productivity is entirely due to advancements in technology.