I&#x27;m gen X too, and graduated into the recession of the 90&#x27;s and have been lucky to be employed in a high demand field. You mention the stuff that we can buy, and that&#x27;s part of the modern abundance that I mention that I know our society can produce, but I don&#x27;t agree with our economic quality of life as a society.<p>It seems to me that the overall opportunities available to Millennials even 5 years away from my age drop off substantially.  The hours that are worked for people that have jobs have increased, and the off hours are encroached by availability of instant demand emails, texts, endless other notifications. Looking at overall stats, the millennial group is at lower employment than previous generations and I personally don&#x27;t believe that they&#x27;re less willing to work hard than previous generations.<p>I&#x27;ve worked for startups with founders (from a generation or two before me) that were able to start fairly deep businesses from their 9-5 job savings and pensions - and now new business starts have been on a decades decline. I was able to work my way through college and now college wages have little hope of paying for a degree. Err I&#x27;m not sure how you claim that civil rights have improved with the uncovering and continuation of wide-scale surveillance that wasn&#x27;t physically possible in the past...<p>There&#x27;s no hard scientific proof in economics, but it seems like our society is more capable than ever, but the benefits are distributed more narrowly, while general wages are flat to declining, the risks individualized with lesser margins in the income, those all feel like fundamental reverses in important life areas.