This is conventional wisdom, but I don't think it holds as much muster as you think. Point #4 is a red herring as they add considerable wealth and convenience t

This is conventional wisdom, but I don't think it holds as much muster as you think. Point #4 is a red herring as they add considerable wealth and convenience to the lives of the people that consume the services listed. Point 1 is a consequence of point 3 which is a result of the outsourcing/automation of labor. Well that's not coming back, because automation isn't going anywhere. We have to be a service-sector economy for the next few decades (until that starts to get automated too). People have bought into College, because that seems like the path of least resistance to cushy white-collar service-sector jobs. This is more or less true, though I have met more hiring managers than less that care way more about acquired skill than degrees. Whatever, I'll grant #1 even though I think it doesn't have to be that way. #2 is the one point on your list that is the most salient and controllable issue pertinent to the generation wealth gap. Land is a fixed resource, but housing doesn't have to be, but baby boomers show up to local elections and vote their interests to artificially tie their ownership of land to housing. Our parents paid waaaay less for housing than we do, and yet we put up with elected officials who maintain the status quo of strict zoning policy that results in over-priced, artificially scarce housing stock. Who can blame them? They leveraged themselves into a stupid investment, and the only reason that it pays off is because they vote for it to continue to pay. I could probably afford a house in a mid-sized American city, but I refuse to purchase one. I refuse to reward the stupidity of the housing market with my dollars. I'd rather a greedy real estate developer have my money and lobby for the local government for density than award some dumb homeowner.