I see older generations today (50 years old and above) often criticizing young people for their late life development. The young get married later, and have children later, and start dating later, and buy their first house later, and buy their first car later, and start working later... than previous generations.

This is often directly blamed on them (People today are just weaker!!! These snowflakes can't take being an adult!!! Back in my day we had nothing and we still made it through!!!), but I wanted to see if older folks actually had it rougher and if they're right about younger people being just less immature.

Have these people considered the wild change in financial situation of most citizens over the years? The personal income of the average worker, in any field of the workforce, has only changed by a decent margin. From 23500 dollars in 1975 to around 32000 dollars in the present day.

This would support the point of view of the older folks, who say "Why are these people protesting to get paid 15 bucks an hour? I worked for 8 dollars an hour and I never complained!". But there is one big aspect to address: the purchasing power of each lot of money.

23500 dollars in 1975 was approximately the equivalent of 110000 today, no matter where you look.

The average worker had a purchasing power MORE THAN THREE TIMES greater than the average worker today. 110K fucking dollars was the average. 110K was normal.

What about the 8 dollars an hour? Was old Johnny getting payed as little as he thinks? Well, turns out that has the purchasing power of 38 dollars today. Remember: these are the same old folks who think you're insane for asking for 15 an hour, when they made the equivalent of 38 back then.

We were told older generations had it economically harder. But... what if they actually had more than three times the purchasing power YOU have?

I see this clearly in my family. Only my grandpa worked and they still could afford 9 children, two houses, two cars and two "servants" (I mean permanent babysitters who lived with them, I don't know if that's the right term). Today, however, everyone in my family planning their future is working full time and their partners are as well and even with the combined salaries of two over the years they can't even afford one house. No children either. No car.

People today are more than three times poorer than baby boomers were, which means every aspect of their lives, including dating and sex, is limited to less than one third of the resources of previous generations.

CHANGE MY VIEW: This has had far more impact on the decline of sex, dating, marriage and social associations in general than any feminist revolution or conspiracy.