Yes, Boomers had a much easier time of things when they were young. But the reason has to do with the fact that the population since 1945 has grown from 145 million to 342 million. So, getting a college degree and affording a home is much more difficult, due to a lack of gov. foresight. +
Taxes were much higher than they are now in the post-war period, and there was a lot of gov. spending on housing, hospitals, higher ed. and creating Community Colleges. But when Ronald Reagan led the anti-tax revolution, the will to tax and spend on social programs became wildly unpopular. +
An example is public school bonds. R-W media influencer Rush Limbaugh went on a crusade against them, telling empty-nesters that they shouldn’t have to pay for other people’s kid’s education. D pols have been fighting against the anti-tax thing but it’s really hard to raise taxes in this country.
It’s why things like free college, and free healthcare are largely wish-casting. The reason why European countries are so far ahead of us in social spending is, after WWII they were determined to make their society better for everyday people + they didn’t have an anti-tax movement like ours.