So much better.My spouses’s parents only wanted their kids to do better than they had. They worked to that end. We invested early, never wasted money, had a number of windfalls and could retire well before the normal age.
In all respects our kids have no money worries and will likely have solid jobs with graduate degrees and no debt. They will also inherit money and homes due to our investments. We will be able to support ourselves in old age. Any businesses they inherit from us would likely be sold or spun down as their interests are not our interests.
I think this is pretty uncommon. Most of our family ( cousins) will either have large college debts or no debt and might have to support their parents in later years. Most of our friends who have college age or recently graduated kids, have enough to retire and have figured out college. Most of our friends kids have no debt. That is likely due to where we live and where we sent our kids to school ( higher income area so parents had more to spend on college).
When I look around I’d say 90% of the people I know who are middle class are doing far worse than previous generations. At the upper echelon, people are doing well, some quite well. Investments have done great in the last decade. It’s really a matter of having enough resources to send your kids to college with no debt and retire well. Lots of moving parts and exceptions. But I think college debt, housing prices, inflation and spending habits have resulted in lesser outcomes.