I like to look at living costs decades ago, compare that to the rate of inflation , and compare that to what various types of jobs paid years ago. I think that gives you a good starting point to see what young people face nowadays. The world has changed. Young people face more difficulties making ends meet than people did decades ago.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/zYp0YVc0c-E
1 minute video. This guy explains that someone making minimum wage in 1980 was better off than a college graduate today.
Young people today do have it tough. Hard to make ends meet. And the career ladders are largely gone. Middle Management has been hollowed out so moving up in the world is much tougher. Your entry level job is likely to be a deadend job. There you are: it will never get better for you. A lot of young people see that the game is rigged heavily against them and so they no longer try. What’s the point? And Boomers who are outraged at anyone spending $7 for a coffee? Maybe not smart, but nobody should act like Gen Z can buy a house today if they just stop buying coffee. I would have to say that they buy the $7 coffee because there is really no reason NOT to. It’s all pointless anyway. So enjoy the coffee.
Yes, things cost a LOT,now, they do for EVERYONE. But it is hardly something new! There have always been good times and bad times in the past, when people STRUGGLED.
Me too, in fact I'm almost fanatical about the subject. I'm in the process of developing my own inflation calculator.
A few months ago I happened to see an old, ~1968, episode of "Leave to to Beaver" during which they mentioned the price of gas being exactly one-tenth the current price and the price of an auto battery being $15 - which is also right at one tenth.
When I think back to what my Dad's paycheck was in those days, it's about one tenth of mine today. That 10x factor between the late 60's and today is a good frame of reference.