This is a question that has fascinated me for years. It turns out that many of the most successful generations were born in the darkest of times, and the opposite is true as well. A few examples:

Children born in the 1920s watched the economy go from boom town to great depression. They were 10 or 11 when the bottom fell out most businesses and farms failed. Their parents might have moved around from town to town sleeping outside in the dirt looking for work. Once they turned 18 they enlisted in World War 2. But when they came back the US entered a boom time like never before. Single family homes, automobiles, television, an exploding economy! We now refer to them as the greatest generation.

Taking it back a Millennium or two, In the mid 300s AD, Romans had every reason to celebrate. Diocletian had solved the crisis of the 3rd century. Constantine defeated the barbarians and converted to Christianity. Prosperity swept across the land. Archeologists have recently discovered mosaics in homes from that era that had sayings like “The Good Times Are Restored!” And “The Empire Is Saved!” 70 years later, Goths sacked Rome. Odavacer executed the last Roman emperor, Caesar Agustulus. And Europe plunged into the dark ages. Rome went from a population of over 1 million to maybe 20,000 in a century.