An argument is that baby boomers were an exceptional period where the middle classes did well, but now we are returning to a historical norm of most people being impovershed and a few super rich people.
Its rational that the boomers would live a lot better than previous generations. Because between the late 1800's and the 1960's there was a 10X improvement in productivity. Combustion engines for farm combines and transportation.. electricity.. mass industrial production were some of the big advances.
As that good post said since 1980 even at a ~1.8% a year productivity improvement which led to a 70% improvement in productivity in that time. Not as fast as during the first half of the twentieth century.. but still constant respectable progress. Just look at steel mills, container ports, automobile production, data handling progress over the last 30 years for examples.
So today's young should be earning 70% more in real income than their parents at the same age. All else being equal, (like the richest 1% still getting the same percentage of the national income).
Instead today's young are only making 50% of what their parents did in real terms. And falling fast.
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