It would be too simplistic to suggest that "Capitalism" in its crudest form has created a gulf between the teenagers of today and their parents, but in truth if it did not actually create the gulf, it most assuredly has exacerbated it.
The youth of today look at their elders who have had (for the most part), the luxury of employment, housing, goods, and a future that included travel, holidays and choices.
They see an inequality between them and their parents, and frankly the pandemic of Covid-19 has brought this disparity to the fore of the youth outlook. The financial opportunities for the teenagers of today is disappearing quicker than snow off a dyke in May.
Not for them is the chance of property ownership since the likelihood of owning a property has halved, job security is even more scarce as the younger employees are easier to get rid of, with official data showing that 88% of net employee job losses during the pandemic, being those of the younger generation.
Their education has been slashed due to the Covid-19 with consequential interference in attendance at school, ergo it is not too fanciful to describe them as potentially a "lost" generation in terms of education, opportunities and a future!
Our obsession with home ownership now means that the youth's opportunity of "Getting a foot on the ladder" in their actually owning a property is even more remote, since capitalism in the form of lenders/building societies, means that the funds available for the purchase of property ensures that financial deposits required are ever increasing as being necessary to purchase your place on the first rung.
The pandemic and associated "lock-down" requirements have placed increased stress and strain on the youth as despite technological advances in computers etc, they are having to stay at home in houses that will always out of their reach until such time as their parents die off. Their companions are out of physical touch unless via email or some other I.T. system that we old fogies know nothing about.
"Age" is what used to be what class was electorally and the conflicting generational differential will possibly result in some form of civil disobedience.
We "Old Fogies" have been warned !
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