I wonder if one of the causes of animosity towards “entitled millennials” is that many millennials are poor people who look rich. There’s this growing class of people who wear nice clothes, have fancy new electronic gadgets, go out to eat nice food… and will never own a home or have a retirement fund or put a child through college.
It’s so easy to say “if you cut down on the avocado toast maybe you could save up”, and so hard to accept that a house these days is fifty thousand avocado toasts, and that’s why so many of us have just given up. We don’t treat ourselves because we think the world will take care of us when we get older; we treat ourselves because we know it won’t. Might as well feel and look good on the way down.
Since this got a bunch of notes, I want to clarify that you should save money. For a rainy-day fund if nothing else. Don’t interpret my millennial angst as encouragement to spend all your money on avocados.
However, I’m still very cynical about all the advice about “buy generic and secondhand, cook at home, and you’re on your way up the Personal Finance Ladder,” because no, you’re not. These are good habits, they help people make the most of what they have, but stop pretending they’re going to make the difference about whether someone can buy a house or not. It’s like telling someone carrying a 50-pound pack to try easing their load by brushing the dust off it. You’re not mathematically wrong, but come on.
Animosity towards poor people who look rich is definitely a thing towards the genuinely poor (“why are they spending money on iPhone and televisions and cigarettes”). Iirc they have done research, and it’s basically for the same reasons as you suggest about millennials. Life is grim, and you’ll never be able to save enough to make a big difference, so you’re not motivated to; “ive got the money so ill spend it now on something nice which makes me feel good” is how the human brain reacts to scarcity.