Eh, the “Great Recession” wasn’t really worse than the stagflation and recessions of the 70s, or, for new workers, the recession of the early 80s.
It happened in the context of higher standards of living than generations had experienced previously, so the dip didn’t go down so far. And, of course, there was the massive market bounce-back opportunity, if stock returns are what you claim to have missed out on.
I think of Gen X as the beginning of what was only intensified with Millennials and Zoomers. You were the start of the pampered, lifestyle accessories that children have become. Millennials and Gen Z were largely born to the comfortable, who had smaller families than previously, and so showered with more expensive housing, toys, meals, vacations, clothes, etc., etc., from the start.
You were the beginning of the “Great Inversion” whereby you lived in relative luxury that your parents or their forebears worked for, rather than largely starting out with limited means, starting families early, and only affording luxuries from midlife on.
So it feels like you’re deprived, but it has been, to date, the opposite.
Of course, this is as much a generalization as any of this generational pratter and things aren’t looking too good going forward for any of us!
The Great Recession last longer than any previous recession since the Great Depression. The job market did not really recover and wages did not really start going up until 2015-2016. I don’t care what the government/Obama administration claims, that’s when the Great Recession really ended. 2007 (yes it started then in the job market because companies could see what was coming and stopped hiring) until 2015-2016.
As for small families and being given all kinds of luxuries in their 20s etc....I was the last of 6. I did not have a car until 23. I had no money in my 20s because I went to grad school. We did get an atari back around 1980 but that was nothing compared to all the stuff available by the 90s/00s.