It was also a different time though. Superannuation didn't exist so they government encouraged buying an investment property for their "nest egg". I don't believe offset accounts existed until at least the 90s as well as exchange traded funds not starting until the 90s. What I'm getting at are there are now more options available to bolster your retirement then what used to exist.

To look at things from a charitable perspective, that generation experienced the most stable economic period in history, in terms of social mobility. I think a lot of them assumed that we had reached a stable normal (as in the fukuyama end of history idea). What they didn't realise was that the period they experienced coming of age was a historical anomaly, and now we are reverting to the normal (unequal wealth). They had a misplaced trust in authority. I can accept that things have changed, but I can't accept millenials being told it's their fault they didn't work hard enough. On the one hand I hear about about 17 percent interest rates, and then they go on about buying a house in Melbourne on a single income public service wage and leaving work for the pub at lunch time. The cognitive dissonance is rattling.