Speaking as an old guy, if someone tells you "I had it rough growing up, but I turned out all right. Everyone should go through that" then they did not actually turn out all right.
We should make things better for future generations. Not the same or worse.
I think it depends. If it's "I worked hard and learned the value of hard work", then sure. If it's "I went hungry many nights, which forced me to work harder than everyone else", then fuck that shit. I'm in the latter group and I don't want anyone else to go through that.
Anyone older who uses this line isn't putting themselves in the place of the kids. Sure, some things are better or easier. But a lot more is shit all thanks to us, the older generations. If I was a millennial or younger I'd be pissed off too.
the younger generation doesn't have to ingest all that lead in everything, but that just leaves more room for all those microplastics
Don’t worry, as long as you don’t kidney disease, the microplastics won’t even have time to kill you before climate change brings about the end of agriculture. :D
I think what some older people mean by this is that the younger generation have had life easy and won't know what to do when rough events happen to them. What the older people don't remember is that rough events happen to nearly everyone. It's just different events.
People today don't know how to do some of the physically demanding work of the 1970's, but we either have other physically demanding jobs or have to compete with 500 other people for a bot to read our résumé on Indeed or both.
Older folks: What would our kids generation do in the event of a terrorism attack?
Millennials who lived through 9/11: Seriously?
Zoomers who have to have active shooter drills: SERIOUSLY?!
Some things are easier for sure, but we're also living in a world with effectively no positive future. Thanks in no small part to certain members of the older generations.