JFC it can be both things
Is someone saying it can't be?
I think people are just fed up with my antics in here as it the focus has shifted. My bad.
I too have a son, and it breaks my heart to think he may not have an easier life than I had. He's much younger, so things are more uncertain, it seems you might be lucky with older boys who seem well adjusted.
It's tough to separate an emotional response from a rational response. I personally believe things will only get better if the problem is acknowledged and understood, but arguing there isn't a problem is counter productive.
Oh, I think there are LOTS of problems. I'm not dumb, though I'm doing a good job in here disproving that. But when I see some of the things going on around me - people having their families ripped apart, people not receiving food stamps, poverty, homelessness, addiction etc - I just have a hard time elevating the lack of manliness to the top of the heap.
And while I do consider my boys well adjusted, they aren't without their own problems or challenges. Oldest is gay, so he'll face possible discrimination if he hasn't already. His brother flunked out of college and has diabetes. But they both have their act together; certainly more so than I did at 22 or 21 (I was a MESS!). I've got a 13 year old daughter who has a nasty eating disorder and barely speaks to me. One my twin boys suffers from absence seizures. It ain't all honky dory over here.
Yes, it's going to be much much harder for my children to buy a home. That sucks. Will it be impossible? I don't think so, but they'll need to save aggressively and realize the joys of being house poor. Rents aren't any better around here either. But we have no way of knowing what housing prices will do over the next 5-10 years. I think a correction is coming and while painful for us, might be the break some of these younger people need in life. I'm okay with that.
End of the day, I like to look at the glass as half full - even with challenges all around us. Just hope all the bars and pubs don't close down before I give up drinking for good.