Anecdotes don't change the fact that as a nation we haven't seen anything like the Great Depression since the '30s, and that in general, the character of those who grew up during that period were shaped by it.
Those who grew up during the Depression didn't want their kids -- the Baby Boomers -- to experience anything of the hardships they remembered all too clearly. Instead, as most parents do, they wanted their kids to share in their prosperity, the likes of which they could only dream about during their own childhood.
The Boomers, being that much further removed from the Depression, knowing little if anything about real hardship, raise(d) their kids accordingly.
Of course, these are generalities. Even in times of great prosperity, there are people who don't prosper. Individual hardship doesn't have the same affect on a generation or a nation as that of national hardship.
I think you would very much enjoy a great but somewhat old read (1998) called "The Fourth Turning." One of the book's points: while the children of the Great Depression built character through economic hardship handed to them by the adults of the time, the children of "Generation Reagan"--many of whom have revived the "stay-at-home-mom" movement, suffered through a Great Depression of ideals vis-a-vis a lack of family values and no attention from the "into themselves" Boomer generation who were too busy continuing to make themselves "feel good and enjoy life." We were the first "latch-key" generation, and thus our character was built based on that. That's why we embraced Reagan.