What makes you say that &quot;rich kids&quot; implies second-generation wealth? Everyone I know who uses it in a pejorative sense is pretty clearly referring to how most of the people in question are still being carded at bars. A 23-year-old making $120K is on the lower end of upper-class and can safely be assured of moving upward barring very unusual circumstances. And if you work in startup-ish&#x2F;leading-edge tech, I&#x27;ll lay even-odds on &quot;spoiled&quot; fitting. (Where do you think all the Mom-replacement startups, the feed-me-and-do-my-laundry startups, come from?) I am profoundly fortunate in my choice of career and the benefits I&#x27;ve realized from it--and I don&#x27;t apologize for it, but I at least try to keep perspective on my <i>extreme</i> good fortune. There but for the grace of God, so on and so forth.<p>The backlash is not against &quot;kids&quot;, but unreasonable defensiveness about the word &quot;rich,&quot; because &quot;oh, I&#x27;m not rich, I&#x27;m just getting by even though I have a stupid-good 401k and benefits and make enough money to never look at a bank statement.&quot; When you have to own up to just not really working all that hard and just not really having a struggle in your life that you didn&#x27;t create, lots of people feel real bad. (And the ones that are hurting people <i>with</i> real problems <i>should</i> feel bad. &quot;But economics&quot; does not clean one&#x27;s hands of one&#x27;s contributions to even faceless evil.)