I’ll second the comment already made. Gen-X could still mostly follow the traditional path despite the beatings they took that screwed things up. They had a chance to become somewhat established. Z, otoh, was told they could do the same thing but started taking hits right away in an already declining economy. Anyone remember the memes of MBAs or Bachelor’s degrees working the Starbucks counters? Yeah, it was real. They thought they’d be ok but got fucked. Everyone after was far more cynical and already knew things were fucked up.