To top it off, I find it common that older generations underestimate the amount of "wiggle room" they had that's barely available to the generations that follow

To top it off, I find it common that older generations underestimate the amount of "wiggle room" they had that's barely available to the generations that follow them. My parents and other parents in their generation have told me countless stories of the ways they practically walked into jobs without experience, or the businesses they started from virtually nothing, and all the good deals that were afforded to them; yet these experiences can be nearly impossible to replicate today. Go ahead and "pound the pavement" with only a go-getter attitude and no experience, and see how that works out for you. I'm not the only one of my generation who were told by their parents to "just walk in and ask the manager for a job" or "offer to make them coffee or sweep their floors just to get your foot in the door" only to be met with laughter and being told to fuck off. Want to start a business like your parents did? Oh, well that's too bad, because the tax advantage they had was since sealed up by the IRS and the same industry now requires several forms of regulatory approval that didn't exist in 1987. But maybe you just want a low key, honest, and reasonably playing job, in which case your own parents may be voting against increasing minimum wage because "how dare they expect more than $3.75 an hour in 2023! I paid my way through college on $3.75 /hr!"