When comparing wealth at the same ages across generations, younger generations do better than prior generations.
Green is Millennials + older Gen Z
Blue is Gen X
Yellow is Baby Boom
“Gen Z is Struggling” in the Worst Economy in History!
There are many “Gen Z is struggling” articles invented from a series of anecdotal stories rather than data. Since the early 2020s, housing costs have risen faster than traditional inflation, due to a reduction in home construction post 2008-2010, and due to the Federal Reserve inflating the money supply by +42%.
In historical context, the Baby Boom had it worse in terms of housing inflation.
Most of Gen Z is not yet in the housing market – in 2025, they ranged in age from 13 to 28.
The inflation rate in the past was far worse than today.
Does this mean everyone is doing well? Of course not. It means the constant media and social media doomerism is not valuable.
I have in the past written strongly supportive comments about Gen Z – I assume the nonsense on X comes from a minority that believes they are entitled to everything.
But the minority of Gen Z posting nonsense on X has gone off the rails – alleging that everything in the past was a life of perfection and ease. As a consequene of the nonsense posts, going forward I will be more skeptical of Gen Z and not supportive of entitled whiny nonsense.
The Baby Boom came of age all at once, all competing for the available supply of jobs – where today, the unemployment rate is 4.3% (announced in June of 2026).
As the Baby Boom came of age, rental vacancy rates collapsed as rents skyrocketed – see years 1970 to 1985.
