Woman clearly explains why baby boomers lived the 'American dream' — and why millennials never stood a chance

Of all the generations, baby boomers were probably the luckiest. With affordable housing, cheaper education, easy access to nature and a lesser cost of living, boomers were able to afford a quality lifestyle that is harder to achieve in today's world. As the great generational divide has stamped its fissure into the fabric of the human world, millennials today are merely struggling to manage paltry expenses for iPhones, coffees and avocado toasts. In a video that has been making rounds on social media, content creator, Ally Rooker (@allyrooker), took a time machine back to the 90s and shared how her parents were able to afford a comfortable lifestyle despite being public school teachers.

“Middle-class boomers lived in an entirely different world than we do,” wrote Rooker, who lives in Detroit and is the founder of the feminist nail TikTok trend. She said she was wondering what a 90s household looks like for a couple, both of whom are teachers and have two kids. What did their finances look like, she marveled.

“My parents are retired public school teachers. They are younger boomers and have been teachers their entire lives. I want you to think about what life looks like for a household of two public school teachers with two kids today,” Rooker told the viewers and then panned the camera around to show a lake with a boat tucked to its dock and a three-bedroom house, which she called as her childhood home. “This is where I grew up, on a lake, with a boat,” she described.

Rooker shared that there were two houses for sale at the time of posting the video. One was selling for $532,000 and the other one for $1.2 million. Recalling how her parents, both public school teachers, moved into her childhood home in the 90s, she reflected how "They never had side hustles, they never had summer jobs. They had summers off.” The beauty enthusiast revealed that “she and her fiancé combined” made what her parents made together when she was in high school and they were decades into their teaching careers.

She pondered how times have changed and how the apartment she and her fiancé live in, is way more expensive and has way lesser quality than that of her parent’s bygone house. “In our apartment, when it rains outside, it rains inside,” Rooker described. She concluded by expressing how she felt “enraging and unfathomable, thinking about the world that people older than us got to live in because no one ever gets to live like this with normal jobs ever again."

Rooker’s video prompted thousands of viewers to contemplate how much easier it was for boomers to achieve the American dream than millennials and Gen Z. “I will never get over how that generation collectively walked into the American dream and closed the door behind them,” commented @Z3PO. A lawyer, @superawesomecoolguy shared, “I’m a lawyer making 200k and I can’t afford to buy the house that my dad bought as a factory worker in the 80’s making less than 30k.” @dallasbrigham wrote, “Crazy because the older generation is oblivious to this! Like literally don’t understand the everyday struggle and social issues we face.”

Others brought attention to the scene that the modern generations spend too much money on frivolous things while the boomers believe in simple living. “It’s the avocado toast and Starbucks,” said @meandyou365.25. @fishprotampa said, “How many iPhones did they have then? How often did they have Starbucks?”

You can follow Ally Rooker (@allyrooker) for content related to nail art, makeup and lifestyle.