The reason young people often have a lower standard of living is because:
- there is a shortage of housing
- predatory loans for higher education
- chronic health crisis due to terrible government health policy and guidelines
- globalization has led to an international labor market
The last point may be bad for many Americans but an unequivocal good for the world. Global poverty has seen an incredible drop in the past 70 years. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extreme_poverty#/media/File:Wo...
Interesting that you put the chronic health crisis on a failure of government.
I would put that more on a failure of culture to value healthy living and activity. I wouldn't call that the responsibility of the government. Perhaps lack of clarity on ownership is related to the crisis itself.
It's not solely the fault of government, but heavy corn subsidies and the food pyramid travesty didn't help.