Baby boomers had the luxury of low housing prices, a massive stock bull market, and low education costs. There was never a better time to start a business -- overhead was low.
The generation coming up now has to hit the proverbial lottery to have a similar chance today given the high fixed living expenses of housing, student loans, and health care.
Another group that needs to be taken into account is the younger generation that is having problems even starting a career.
My sister graduated from university a few years ago, and - like almost everybody else she knows in her generation - is bouncing between unemployment and terrible minimum wage jobs (some are de facto lower than minimum wage due to wage theft).