There are a lot of memes that go around people my age/younger than me (I'm 24), that make reference to depression / the fact that people don't really think that they have a chance at making a decent life. It's a humorous take on it, but it's manifesting a deeper anxiety, and it seems to have become a big thing in the past two years or so.
I moved to America about 18 months ago from New Zealand, and noticed that while Americans have more "stuff" they carry a lot more anxiety too. There's a lot less room for error. I think that's the same thing that's happened over generations. We've squeezed the big things - wages, housing prices, middle-class jobs and pumped up our general consumption. So we have more, but less security.
I moved to America about 18 months ago from New Zealand, and noticed that while Americans have more "stuff" they carry a lot more anxiety too. There's a lot less room for error. I think that's the same thing that's happened over generations. We've squeezed the big things - wages, housing prices, middle-class jobs and pumped up our general consumption. So we have more, but less security.