Have you ever noticed how every generation seems to think the next one is doing it all wrong?
“They’re too soft.”
“They don’t want to work.”
“They waste money on gadgets and brunch.”
It’s almost a rite of passage for older folks to grumble about “kids these days.” And sure—some of that grumbling is fair. But a lot of it misses something crucial:
Young people today aren’t just making different choices; they’re living in a completely different world.
In 1970, over half of all 30-year-olds in America were both married and owned a home. That was normal, expected, and affordable.
Today, that number has dropped below 15%.
That’s not just a preference shift—it’s the economic and cultural fallout of decades of bad policy.
Since the 1970s, incomes have gone up gradually… but home prices have exploded. What used to cost two or three times your annual salary now costs seven or eight times—or more.
And that’s before we even talk about interest rates, student debt, and skyrocketing costs of living.
This is what happens when central planners think they can outsmart markets. It’s what happens when the government tries to “help” by handing out cheap money, imposing tons of restrictions, subsidizing industries until they break, and of course, printing loads of money.
And now, it’s young people paying the price—literally.
It’s easy to mock them for feeling angry or hopeless. It’s harder to admit that they’re staring down a rigged system and trying to make sense of it.
Honestly? I understand why many of them start looking to socialism. It’s not because they’ve read Marx and find his ideas appealing. It's because they’re desperate for something that makes any of this make sense.
Unless we step in and offer better explanations based in truth, sound economics, and actual history, they’ll keep falling for the anti-capitalist ones they find online.
In The Tuttle Twins and the Messed Up Market, we help kids understand what happens when prices get distorted, how government intervention creates winners and losers, and why freedom—not control—is the foundation of a healthy economy.
It’s one of the most important stories we’ve told—and right now, it’s part of our biggest bundle of the year.
As part of our Back to School Sale, you can get Messed Up Market along with 13 other books from our original kids’ series, plus activity workbooks, audiobooks, and parent guides—at up to 70% off.
👉 Click here to shop the bundle
I get it. It’s easy to remember the “good old days,” and fault the youngsters for not being able to replicate our success. But the reality, once you really start to dig into it, is that they are entering adulthood in a world that is incredibly hostile to them being able to build a prosperous and fulfilling life.
We need to be actively preparing today’s kids for the world they’ve actually inherited—not the world we wish still existed.
Because if we’re being honest, it’s a world shaped by forces mostly outside their control.
If we want them to rise above it, we’ve got to equip them with the knowledge, values, and critical thinking that will help them thrive—no matter what comes next.
— Connor
