People can absolutely still afford to buy houses on middle-class salaries. They just can't do it in San Francisco or Manhattan or the nicest neighborhoods in Ch

People can absolutely still afford to buy houses on middle-class salaries. They just can't do it in San Francisco or Manhattan or the nicest neighborhoods in Chicago. They may also have to hold off buying a new phone every year. They may have to not sign up for all 500 cable channels along with Spotify and Netflix. But there are lots of people living just fine, with families in their own homes, on middle class families. But, sure, some things are harder. And other things are easier. It's much easier to learn skills on Coursera/Udacity/etc without having to pay for college. It's much easier to move around the country. For people who gay, lesbian, or trans, I would say life is probably a lot easier than it was in the 80s and 90s. The gig economy provides options for making side cash. I'm sure every generation is whiny. But within the generation, everyone is going through the same things. So, live the best you can, and stop trying to compare yourself to everyone else, let alone those in other generations.