For the first part, no, it's not about guilt. Er, well, I 'll try to avoid speculating on the psychology on their side, but no matter how much data I show my well-meaning, "liberal" parents, they simply seem unable to accept how different circumstances are facing younger generations compared to them raising a 2-kid, family-vacay-ever year, comfortably middle-class family on one salary.
As for the second paragraph, I guess I'll just say, I think you're probably completely spot on.
> they simply seem unable to accept how different circumstances are facing younger generations compared to them raising a 2-kid...
That's quite a bit different from your original accusatory "they and their peers pulled the ladder up behind them". Kinda makes it difficult to believe it's not about guilt when you're phrasing it like this.
> 2-kid, family-vacay-ever year, comfortably middle-class family on one salary
I think we are kind of looking back decades ago with rose colored glasses, too. I went to a very middle class school in the late 70s, early 80s, and nobody I knew went on a family vacation every year. I don't think I even stepped foot on an airline until I was 16. Nobody went out to restaurants--that was for rare, special occasions. We shared rooms with our siblings, ate boxed macaroni and cheese, played with second hand toys (or went out side and played with sticks and rocks). We had one TV with 13 channels, which we all shared when something was on. I mean at least we had a house, but it had something like a 13-15% mortgage that I'm sure my parents could barely pay.
This idea that middle class boomer parents could afford a luxurious lifestyle for their families is not all that truthful.
Food is not a luxury anymore. The past couple of decades have seen immense improvement in the food industry as a whole. It was inevitable that those improvements and savings spill over to customers. And since even rich people only have one belly each, eating well became less of a luxury and more accessible to the middle class. The inventory in normal supermarkets have improved astonishingly in the past 15 years. But nobody takes note, because it's a gradual process.
Eating in restaurants is as much a marker of wealth and a luxurious lifestyle as owning a wireless telephone – ie not at all.
But owning your own home has by monetary policy means been turned to something only achievable with huge wealth – or selling the rest of your life to the bank.
> This idea that middle class boomer parents could afford a luxurious lifestyle for their families is not all that truthful.
“Middle class” has a slippery definition, but it is definitely the case that by many measures Millenials are, overall, seeing worse family financial conditions any any given age than Boomers did (e.g., median real wealth is lower for Millenials than it was for Boomers the same age.) There is also indications that this is accompanied by much greater in-generation disparity (e.g., 90th percentile wealth is higher for Millenials than it was for Boomers of the same age, despite the median being lower.)
As for the second paragraph, I guess I'll just say, I think you're probably completely spot on.