Unemployment today is lower than it's been since the 1960s. And today vastly more people are wealthier than they've ever been. Saying there was more opportunity in the 1980s is bizarrely out of touch with reality. In the 80s, he was in college. Now a days anybody in college, which is something that's practically guaranteed to anybody that wants to and is willing to do remotely decent in high school, has access to thousands of dollars - if not directly from our excessive loans, then they can simply take a couple of weeks and work at their leisure. Or they can stay with a normal school schedule and work an internship, at a lab, or whatever else - easily earning many thousands.