BTW, I love this article because it brings data to show this actually exists. This question of 'why' seems particularly difficult. We speculate it might be beca

BTW, I love this article because it brings data to show this actually exists. This question of 'why' seems particularly difficult. We speculate it might be because of some material/socio-economic deficit this never generation is experiencing. This conversation assumes "is 30k good enough or not" is at the heart of it. For someone living 100 years ago, a live in our age on 30k gives them more nutrition and tools than they could have dreamed of (and let's not act like land/housing is all that expensive; you can live in the boonies for almost nothing). The difference must lie in how 30k is interpreted today. Perhaps it's that people expect not just an absolute level of living but a continuous upward mobility they're not experiencing? Or perhaps all those 30k+ jobs are actually in places where you can't own land for 30k? Or maybe just it's more obvious now that you can get a much better life if you have more money? (e.g. I can see all these things are for sale, I just can't afford them) This topic aside, I wonder why we have such a hard time accepting a life that's a bit simpler... What about the other side of that initial assumption? Are there causes other than the 30k-thing that might be why people don't seem to care as much about freedom? I suspect the confusion between 'democracy' (which can be pretty imperfect; starting wars and all that) and 'freedom' (which is a very generic concept) might be a part of it. It also might be just the usurpation of the theme of 'freedom' to back conservative opinions (e.g. freedom to discriminate).