I think I was deterred from soft whining because I was close to my grandparents, who told me many tales of what life was like during the Depression and WW II as I was growing up.
This current generation has no such direct tie to those times. And the results are not encouraging.
I remember Grandma's story well. Her dad was an 8th grade dropout but very smart. In one day he lost his job, had a partially built house, banks closed, had a wife and six kids, and he went home and went to bed because he didn't know what to do. He later regrouped, put his skills to work, invented a balance testing machine, started a business and got by. If he sold one of those things a month or so, they'd be alright. Another Grandma story was when her mom brought out dinner. "It's not cat. It's rabbit."
My dad's side of the family grew up financially poor as well. I didn't, but learned from it. Not from talk, but by example in how he lives his life. He and all of his siblings (mostly boomers, couple gen-x'ers as there's 20 years difference) have or had successful careers.
I'm just glad most, if not all of the younger cousins tend to be the exception to the rule in this generation. Most of them also worked during college as well. Irony is that I was the late bloomer there and paid for it in my mid 20's until I decided to go into business for myself since my resume sucked. Best decision I ever made. What I learned is that I should have gone into business about five years sooner.