Baby boomers may not have necessarily had it “easier” but they certainly had it different.

• Though the generational line is slightly blurred, we can generally say that baby boomers are currently around 57-75 years old, with a majority being born from 1946-1964. There is no doubt that people in this age group grew up with vastly different social contexts than Gen Z’s or even Millennial’s
• Thinking from a monetary perspective, a purchase of $15,000 in 1970 is equivalent to about $105,037 today, meaning prices are about 7x higher today than they were 51 years ago. For some baby boomers, being raised with lower prices for things such as school, rent, cars, and other amenities makes them completely unaware of how difficult it is to pay rent as a college student these days.
• In fact, the average rent in 1960 was $71/month. In 1980, it was $243/month; in 2000 it went up to $605/month, and in the year 2020 it was up to $1,104/month. The minimum wage average in 1960 was $1. In 1980, it was $3.10, in 2000 it was $5.15, and in 2021 the federal minimum wage is $7.25/hr. A new report from the National Low Income Housing Coalition, "Minimum wage workers can’t afford to rent a two-bedroom home or apartment anywhere in America.” If we consider that the average minimum-wage worker works 8 hours a day, 5 days a week, for 4 weeks per month, they would only make $1,160 a month. If their rent was the national average of $1,104, they would only have $56 to spend on food, utilities, medical necessities, etc.
• Of course, these are generalizations based on the given data, but this proves that it is much harder to earn a livable wage these days than it was back when baby boomers were young.
• Baby boomers also lived in a time where acceptance to colleges and universities was much higher, and the overall cost of living and expenses was lower.
• This is not all to say that baby boomers all grew up in a field of sunshine and flowers. Certainly many experienced economic stress and other obstacles that inevitably occur in life. However, there is definitely a generational divide when it comes to social expectations, money, and particularly jobs and education between Baby Boomers, Millenial’s, and Get Z’s. Baby Boomers definitely had different childhood/teenage/and adult years than those younger than them. Was it easier? Possibly. But it certainly was different.

'Easy' might be unfair, but they did have it easier.

• Millenials and Gen Z have grown up in a very different environment to baby boomers with more advanced technology, more eating out, cheaper holidays abroad and other things that baby boomers did not have. However, many of these things are cultural shifts rather than necessarily being improvements that make life ultimately 'easier', the arrival of the internet being the main example.

• It is undeniable that there are certain major anxieties for millennials and Gen Z which baby boomers experienced in much smaller doses.

1. It is much more difficult for young people to get on the property ladder, with UK house prices 14 times what they were for baby boomers in the 1970's.

2. Despite the fact that millennials are better educated, in America millennials earn 20% less than baby boomers did at the same age. with similar patterns in Europe as well. University is also no longer free, keeping people in debt.

3. While there is more conversation about mental health than in the past, more Millenials and Gen Zs are suffering from mental health issues than baby boomers did at the same age, the clearest indication that things are tough. While in the 1960's the average onset age for depression was 45, it is now 14.

• I don't think any generation has had it 'easy', but there have been fewer obstacles in the way of baby boomers economically, and zero negative effects of social media and the internet on them growing up.