Once upon a time, in an American neighborhood, you could buy a house, work through college to pay your tuition with zero student loan debt, and have a child without feeling as if you would never financially recover. The credit score wasn’t even created until 1989. It wasn’t until 1978 that federal student loans were accessible to all Americans. All this to say, that when millennials and Gen Z complain about the price of housing, education, Healthcare, and everything, it’s a valid complaint. Generations were used as test subjects for programs and systems that we are seeing don’t work. Students are defaulting on their loans because they can’t find jobs that help them with the astronomical interest rates, homeownership is a fantasy because of the student loans and older people complain and tell them to work harder.

The federal minimum wage is still $7.25. There is nowhere in this entire country where one can live off of that, and the people in charge are so out of touch because they purchased their first home with pocket change from their couch and leftover lint.

It wasn’t until the 70s that the American Dream started becoming more unattainable. And kudos to Gen Z for seeing how unattainable the American Dream was and deciding to create their own paths. A Pew Study shows that nearly half of people under 50 don’t have children and don’t plan on having children. This is creating a domino effect that we’ll see a decline in enrollment of students in elementary and secondary. Then we’ll see a lack of people in the workforce, and then we’ll see a lack of tax money because there’s a whole generation that didn’t like the climate of the country and decided to not raise a child in what’s essentially the American Nightmare.

“And I can’t afford a mattress
Your spending all out taxes
On wars, guns, drugs, and fascists
And mass-produced distractions” – Gavin Prophet