we DO NOT have the same control over our material conditions as they had

Explain that to every Boomer drafted to die in Vietnam. Or live long enough to get lead poisoning from paint and car exhaust. Or weapons testing radiation. Or AIDS.

Hell, explain it to the folks whipped out after any of the market crashes and recessions of the 60s, 70s, and 80s. Nevermind the big ones in '01, '08, and '20.

Think that while house prices, rents for services and prices for a lot more things are growing up endlessly, at the same time salaries are not only totally unchanged, but they’re going down.

The Cold War Peace dividend accrued primarily to a minority of college educated white men. Mass incarceration, deindustrialization, and pollution ruined the lives of the plurality. For every white collar Reaganite with a boat and a white picket fence, there were three hippies, migrants, and racial/sex minorities eating that guy's exhaust.

Take into account that real estate is mostly dominated by older people, and most CEOs and other high-ranking figures are older people too.

Survivorship bias. If you couldn't secure a permanent residence or you lost it to unemployment, bankruptcy, and foreclosure, your life expectancy plummeted. Meanwhile, if Greatest Gen parents owned a home (and they were the ones who really got in on the ground floor) then your odds of owning one were significantly higher.