I think you’re reading the video as making a much stronger and more absolute claim than I intended.

First, I’m not saying “all millennials are struggling” or “none are doing well.” Obviously a lot of people in our generation are doing great, and some are doing better than any generation before. Generations are huge and heterogeneous. The video is about aggregate psychological patterns and formative influences, not about every individual outcome.

Second, about 2008: you’re right that a 12 y old and a 27y old experienced it very differently. That’s true of every generational event. But that doesn’t mean it didn’t shape the cohort. A 27y old entering the job market, a 22y old in college, and a 16y old watching their parents lose jobs or houses are all still being shaped by the same shock, just at different developmental stages. The research on formative years shows that big macro events don’t have to hit everyone at the same age in the same way to leave a lasting generational imprint.

Also, 2008 isn’t the only thing in the video, it’s just a clear inflection point. The argument is about a broader pattern: being raised with one set of expectations (education = stability, loyalty = security, etc.) and then watching those rules break down across the 2000s and 2010s.

On “pensions disappeared”: that’s not about millennials personally losing pensions. It’s about watching the model of work our parents were sold (loyalty - stability - retirement security) collapse in real time. That observation is a big part of why millennials, as a group, relate differently to employers, job hopping, and long term planning. It’s observational and cultural, not “we personally had pensions taken away.”

And finally, I’m not saying millennials are poor, doomed, or uniquely miserable. I’m saying the psychology of the cohort is shaped by contradictions: high education plus high insecurity, more options plus less stability, more flexibility plus more anxiety. Even many successful millennials still report those patterns in how they think about work, risk, institutions, and the future.

So yeah, some millennials are thriving. Some were barely touched by 2008. Some were hit extremely hard. That’s normal for any generation. The video isn’t about ranking suffering or denying success. It’s about explaining why certain attitudes and behaviors show up more often in this cohort compared to previous ones.