I'm not saying that anyone had it easy (again, not anyone in the middle class). I'm also not saying that there is no opportunity today, but there was back in the old days. There is opportunity today. However, I am saying that it is more expensive to buy a house today than it used to be, which makes one of the biggest single economic engines enjoyed by the boomer middle class much more difficult for the millenials to tap into (while, at the same time, the boomers receive a disproportionate benefit from that scarcity). You don't have to look very hard to find the data that backs that up.
And yes, Badge, college is not a silver bullet, and there are lots of ways to succeed financially without going to college (the trades are a good example). But the data still supports that economic outcomes are better for the college educated than for the non-college educated. That's aggregate, so there will be plenty of examples that don't fit that mold. And there are still plenty of places/careers where a college degree is the price of admission. College is unquestionably more expensive now than it was for GenX and the boomers. Does everyone need to go to college? No. Does everyone need college for economic stability or to create massive wealth? No. Is this a barrier that is harder for millenials to overcome than it was for GenX and the boomers? Yes. All of those things can be (and are) true at the same time.
It also is my experience that there is no quicker way to piss off hard-working millenials than to blame them for not being able to afford a house. And that response is a rational one. The data backs it up.
