[10xDev]

> In Sweden and other parts of the Western world, for example, recent findings point to a widening intergenerational gap where older adults report increasing well being while younger individuals experience notable declines

So it is just a case of older people pulling the ladder up behind themselves.

[matusp]

> So it is just a case of older people pulling the ladder up behind themselves.

Is it though? I have a feeling that previous generations were simply happy with less. Now we are so connected and everybody wants what they consider the standard according to social media: huge house in the most prominent city in their country, N exotic vacations every year, meaningful job, etc. But this would be a pretty tall order even 20 or 40 years ago.

[cayleyh]

I too feel this is a huge part of it, coupled with the fact that "basics" of last generation (a home you own, a stable job that doesn't overwork you on evenings and weekends, affordable options to have a family) are also being priced out of many peoples lives. You feel like you're not matching what your parents and cultural artifacts tell you you should be achieving at your age, and at the same time you're flooded with influencers on ski trips to Japan or snorkelling in Jamaica every other weekend, and it's a perfect recipe for feeling bad about your life no matter how well off you're doing compared to yesterdays median statistic.

[AlecSchueler]

> I have a feeling that previous generations were simply happy with less.

They could also afford to buy houses on minimum wage salaries.

I have a much higher salary than my parents, and I'm theory I can get more things from further afar, but I still live in a much more precarious situation.

[polishdude20]

It's the baby boomer phenomenon. They reaped the rewards back then and are still reaping the rewards. The benefits have been following that age group through their lives. Its like a rolling window.

[trgn]

somewhat tangential, but most interesting phenomeon is the phaseshift non-boomers will undergo when they're around 45, surveying what's left, realizing how much they have paid into the system already, and desperate to claim the same rewards. it's a perpetuum mobile. if it needs to end, the young will have to wrestle it from their seniors _now_, because that gap closes fast.

[dinobones]

Can you blame them for existing during early globalization, before over the financialization of everything? It's not like they actively took more than they "should have" from anyone directly, it's a consequence of their local economy and where it was at the time.

[duxup]

I wonder about that.

I'm older now, work with a lot of great young peers. Their lifestyle though at that age is nothing like mine was. I worked through school (admittedly because I wasn't very good at school). My first real jobs just barely paid for everything. First apartment was pretty, spartan. Eating out or going out was infrequent. I liked sports, but when I did go to sporting events I was in the cheap seats on the cheap food promotion night.

That's not the lifestyle I see today. I don't blame younger folks for wanting it, it's shown to them everywhere. But the expectations are different and living them has financial consequences too.

[10xDev]

Ironically you are probably doing the thing you are accusing of young people doing which is taking a tiny sample size of a privileged group and assuming that's the norm.