But your position is ridiculous.
How many Boomers were drafted and went off to horrible years of war, only to return disabled — or not to return at all?
Certainly they weren’t feeling “poor” if they were graduate students.
And again, they typically started real work one to two decades before your average Xer did.
What’s ridiculous about my position.
Measure house prices vs average salary in 1970 vs now. How many years of salary did it take to afford a house then vs now? It was a lot less then.
Measure tuition costs then and measure them now. Notice how they’ve grown way faster than inflation?
What was the average annual rate of return on equities from 1980 until 2000? What’s it been since then? Notice how it was way better in that earlier time period?
These were all very beneficial to Boomers. It helped them accumulate wealth earlier/faster than subsequent generations.
There was a draft until the mid 70s and many Boomers were indeed drafted (though many got deferments and were able to avoid the draft).
You say the typical Boomer started work a decade or more before the average Xer did. I’ll need to see evidence to support that claim.