It's less about wealth and more about lack of stability, and increased competition for a smaller % of the pie (even if the salary numbers are higher).
Don't count on loyalty from your employer, you're expendable and your benefits are always subject to getting to shittier in the interest of raising profits for shareholders. Don't count on regular raises or opportunities for promotion, companies aren't afraid of culling raises in a bad year, and they're less afraid of looking for outside candidates instead of promoting within and having to train the position. Also learn to accept an increase in healthcare costs pretty much every year, and that as benefits shrink.
A housing market that is more expensive than ever and also eternally a seller's market. Renting isn't much cheaper, and it's a guarantee that your rent will go up every year by inflation allowed amount, and that's the smallest increase you'll experience. If you're extra lucky your apartment complex will get bought out by the same corporate overlord who owns like 20 properties near you, and the first thing they do without making any extra repairs is raise the rent which you have to pay or renew when your lease ends and adopt the same shitty corporate policy as all their other properties have (aka 500$ pet deposit +50$ pet rent a month, 100$ a year for gym access when it used to be free, 15$ for a parking permit so your car isn't towed off the lot).
Bear in mind the parents of Children born in the 1980's will, by and large, be baby boomers. Picking the year 1970, the average manufacturing worker (supervisory) made 6.5-7k, adjusted for inflation that's 43,000$ today, and that's a job you could get with no college education. Also average houses ranged from like 10k (or less) in many parts of the country to like 25k in California. Adjusted for inflation that's 66,000$ to 167,000$, and those prices are for average homes, but not so-called starter homes. The average new car (adjusted for inflation) cost 23,000$ in 1970. In 2018, the average cost of a new car is 36,000$.