That’s an interesting chain of thought considering that prior generations emphasized savings and prudence even more than baby boomers did, and were undoubtedly better acquainted with death than millennials. Indeed, in 1960, when baby boomers were children, the US had an under 5 mortality rate of over 3%, comparable to India today and high enough where nearly everyone knew children who had died.
> prior generations emphasized savings and prudence
Even though I'm a native English speaker, I discovered right now that I didn't know what prudence meant. I knew the word prude so I naturally assumed that prudence meant being concerned with morality and sexual behavior.
It turns out that the words are unrelated. Prudence means the ability to govern and discipline oneself by the use of reason. So unlike prude, prudence is actually a positive trait.
Though I'll add that "in modern English, the word prudence has become increasingly synonymous with cautiousness; in this sense, prudence names a reluctance to take risks." (Wikipedia)
One could argue that sex and drugs are also the opposite of “discipline” and “reason.” Certainly, they stand in contrast to “reluctance to take risks.”
It is interesting. Boomers came of age in one of the most prosperous societies ever. And while we can't talk about all those tens of millions of people as one unit, there are major and obvious trends from that generation where they emphasized fear of crime and drugs and sex (just look at the politics), and focused on job and retirement security over most other aspects of life.
I'd have expected them to be a lot more decadent and care free. Maybe it has to do with being raised by a generation that could not be decadent or care free (by and large).
Fear of crime and drugs and sex compared to whom? Not the generation before. It seems the correlation goes in the opposite direction from what you posit.
Indeed, as at least the perception of prosperity goes down, it’s worth observing that millennials have fewer sexual partners than boomers and use less drugs.
