Do away with the angst

Why is it nowadays that young people are not more hopeful about the future. When I was graduating the Vietnam War was going on and I could not wait to go over there and do my part to bring the war to an end. Little did I know that it would be micromanaged, such that even though we won most battles, we lost because we handed the country over to the North during the Paris Peace talks so Nixon could say look I got us out just like I promised. When he promised he had no plan and that was quite obvious by how we ended the war, with the enemy nipping at our heels all the way to Saigon. There is so much to be hopeful for nowadays, other than the national debt which needs to be taken care of. We stand at horizons in science, medicine, going back to the Moon, so many things to explore and invent. We have a better standard of living than most of the world. Our young people take ipods, smartphones, 200 channels, supermarkets loaded with food from around the world, clean water, a long life expectancy.
What we must get our young college graduates(millenials) to understand is that it was not always this way, there was a scourge of polio, there were many households without electricity, people actually starved in Appalachia, the Yazoo delta, African Americans could not eat at a Woolworth's lunch counter, or ride where they wanted on the bus. Heart disease was an early killer, there weren't double bypasses and triple bypasses. How long ago was this, it was the early 60's when I was young. We had not landed on the Moon, stamps were a nickel, a box of candy at the movies was a nickel, a pop was a dime. Wages did not buy all the extras they do nowadays. A lot of families may have only just stayed ahead of inflation in the last 40 years, but during that time, many things went down in price. In 1971, you could buy a Ford Maverick for 1,999 which was about 1,000 hrs of wages. Average wage in the U.S. is 18.00 and you can still buy a decent small car for $18,000. It takes one fortieth of an hour to buy a stamp, it took about the same then. Bread was fifteen cents, that took about six minutes to earn then about the same as now. Hamburger was about 55 cents, about 20 minutes of work for one pound, now it is about two dollars or 7 minutes work. In most categories other than housing, it takes about the same amount of labor to earn the money to pay for the same items. As a matter of fact in 1971 we paid 53% of our income for housing, food, energy and healthcare. Now we pay 55%. What has that extra 2% for housing got us, larger houses. The money spent on healthcare gets us the finest healthcare in the world, cures for cancer, stents, double bypasses. We live longer on average not because if we live to 60, we live longer because we live about the same age if we make it to 60.
The biggest difference in life expectancy is because more of us actually live to 60 due to nutritional advances, advances against childhood killers such as polio, pneumonia, mumps, rubella, whooping cough, etc.
So young people why the angst, have a lighter heart, this is not The Great Recession, the recession that ended in 1984 was far worse, at least you will not pay 18% for a mortgagte anytime soon, while unemployment is high at the same time like the late 70% and early 80's. That was the Great Recession that started under President Carter. So roll up your sleeves and help the next greatest generation, yes the Baby Boomers, solve the world's problems, do not shrink away in fear from the stock market, the workplace, etc. but step up to the plate and attempt to hit it out of the park, if you do, you can become the next greatest generation, surpassing your parents in achievements perhaps, even if you do not, you will have tried.