Man great story, sounds like we grew up in the same house. Grandparent’s generation came from Italy with nothing, no education, parents made it as far as high school. I started working before 16 and went non-stop, borrowed the max to educate myself, was a bit of a wild weed as a kid so I barely squeaked into college then law school, tried as I might I didn’t do all that well & when combined with zero connections, family, political or otherwise, I was unable to get a job in the field after graduation at 25, still left home, spent the next 5 years in practice out on my own in various forms before finding my first ‘job’, also waited on tables at night to close the loop on my nut, was rough, didn’t get my first ‘paycheck’ until I was about 30. Suffered some significant setbacks along the way, early 40s I lost the job I thought I’d retire at, had to regroup & start over, then about a year later the wife went sideways, that was another financial beat down, 100% worth it but a beat down nonetheless, just last year the business faltered & I had to again plot a new course at 53. Been a struggle, but I never expected it to be easy, that’s not how my parents raised me. Life is rough & the world is a brutal place & you’ve got to fight your way through it. There’s been a good bit of success mixed in there too so while it’s all good I don’t take anything for granted.
millennials most certainly didn’t invent being sniveling entitled idiots, they’re present in every generational cohort. Do they have a higher percentage of them, I don’t know, don’t care either, the only relevant thing is that the rest of us are stuck with them whatever their age may be.