There are certain events that can change the course of an entire generation. Historians often speak about how the Great Depression in the 1930’s and the Second World War in the 1940’s worked together to forge what we call now the Greatest Generation. Those people were unflappable. They had been beaten like heated iron between the hammer and anvil of those two great events.
The Baby Boomers were affected by Vietnam, Watergate and the Sexual Revolution. Those great events inclined many people in that generation toward cynicism and self-indulgence and collectively they resulted in a massive expansion in divorce. Baby Boomers get divorced at a higher rate than any generation before them – and any generation after them[1].
The Millennials grew up in the aftermath of 9/11 and then had the rug pulled out from underneath them, financially speaking, by the Great Recession in 2006-2008 just as they were entering into the housing market. The experts say that these events inclined many people in that generation toward anxiety and resentment.