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I think part of the problem is that people have short memories when it comes to the economy, and tend to look at the past with rose-colored glasses. Younger people, meanwhile, have no recollection of being adults during a real economic downturn. People don't remember that if you were a young college graduate from about 2009 to 2012 it was very difficult to find a normal desk job unless you majored in engineering or computer science, and even then the market wasn't exactly gangbusters. Now companies are bitching about how they can't find enough employees. Hell, even the steel mills in the Mon Valley are accepting open applications from people off the street with no experience, a situation which was unthinkable since at least the mid-'70s.
About a week ago a guy I drink with on occasion was lamenting the bleak outlook young people have today with all the inflation, the war in Ukraine, the Hamas attack, etc. The only problem was that he was born in 1956; inflation back then was an order of magnitude worse than it is now, the situation in the Middle East was arguably worse (especially with respect to Israel), and the whole of Eastern Europe was controlled by a Soviet state with international influence Putin can only dream of. He doesn't remember it that way, of course, but no one ever does.
How much did it cost your friend to buy a house, a college degree, or a car? Did his wife work?
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