Millenial here, born in mid-80s. Have seen or experienced: > dot-com boom / bust (junior high) > 9/11 (high school) > War on Terror (college) > student loan

Millenial here, born in mid-80s. Have seen or experienced: > dot-com boom / bust (junior high) > 9/11 (high school) > War on Terror (college) > student loans (probably for the rest of my life) > the worst recession since the Great Depression, and the lasting economic / career effects that never goes away when you go through that (right when I graduated college) > the divisive culture wars between old / young, rich / poor, establishment / anti-establishment, etc > Trump as president > Covid-19 > narcissistic boomer parents > narcissistic boomers in all levels and areas of institutional leadership whose baseline modus operandi is incompetence, corruption, and greed > and a lot more that stresses me out From my perspective, the world is back-sliding - everything feels like its getting worse, not better. Economic data backs this - real wages are level while cost of living is increasing. And you wonder why we are putting have having children? It's because we do not know what economic optimism and financial security feel like.