I don't think successful members of the slightly older generation have a good sense of just how much the game has changed for young people, even the young people who supposedly did the right thing. They did the thing they were told: did well in school, went to a good university, went to law or graduate school, and then... Started real life with the equivalent of a mortgage but no house to go with it.
It's all exacerbated by the great recession, and if economic recovery ever really gets going it will improve somewhat, but the price of entry into successful professional life is a hell of a lot higher than it used to be, and the payoff is frequently lower.
