Today’s episode aims to answer the reader-submitted question I received months ago: “It feels like I’ve done everything right, and yet I can barely make ends meet. Has life always been this…hard?”

When I first started writing about personal finance in 2018, I believed the rules of the game were fixed, simple, and universally applicable.

I had the tonic that was going to make my generation rich, because I figured the things that worked for me would work for everyone. The perilous two years that followed (the global panini) opened my eyes to just how complex life is in the 21st century, particularly for those coming of age in it—and this two-part series is my attempt at making sense of the world around us politically, economically, and culturally. (And yes, the financial implications at the collective and individual levels.)

Listen now on your favorite podcast player, or catch the episode on YouTube!

“Millennials are entitled to a good life!” claims the entitled millennial, immediately drawing criticism from readers who fire off short, snarky messages from their Galaxy Tabs. (Shout-out to Jim, an angry man with a Galaxy Tab who told me I’m a “woman who overcomplicates everything” and “a young person who has no common sense.” I hope he’s well.)

Before we go any further, let’s clarify one key thing:

I don’t believe millennials are entitled to a good life simply because they’re part of the “Me, me, me!” generation, as it was christened by Time Magazine in 2013, which noted that “the incidence of narcissistic personality disorder is nearly three times as high for people in their 20s as for the generation that’s now 65 or older, according to the National Institutes of Health.” (Ironically, and perhaps fittingly, the other “Me generation” title was given to none other than the boomers, thanks to the then-newfound pursuit of “self-fulfillment” in the 1970s—here are the receipts, in the form of a New York Magazine cover from 1976.)

I also don’t believe millennials are any more special than those who came before them—just that we’re younger and newer. And what do we know about each new generation’s lives? Well, if things are working as intended, they’re better than the last.

Staggering human progress creates some level of expected “entitlement”

Take the last 200 years, for example: a relatively microscopic blip of time in the span of human history, but an eternity of progress. In the year 1820, a staggering 89% of the world’s population lived in extreme poverty. Up until now, at least, life has consistently, relentlessly improved for each passing generation, becoming easier, cushier, and longer.

Life even 50 years ago would be unrecognizable to those born in the 21st century.

Perhaps this is why it’s so frustratingly, paradoxically confusing why—for the first time ever—the pendulum seems to be swinging in the other direction (but more on that in a moment, and in today’s podcast episode).

It’s natural to see those born after you—who benefit from technological advances that you didn’t benefit from—as self-obsessed snowflakes who rode in the back of Mom’s Escalade to kindergarten and definitely didn’t have to walk three miles in the snow uphill both ways.

Keep reading to learn why millennials face a confounding collection of cultural and economic factors, and what it means for progress today.