I think part of this is just due to society and America and simply because parent’s could. Some of the depression era parents or WW2 folks or America booming after WW2 because all of Europe’s manufacturing was bombed and destroyed made the 50s – 90s great for America. It’s the situation of the rest of the world and the parents living through a tougher time. Since the parents had it tough, the kids were sheltered and told they can do/have whatever because the parents could provide a more sheltered / safer life.
I honestly think a lot of this is REALLY out of everyone’s control actually. It’s sorta the luck of the draw of when you graduate, when you live, where you live, etc…
Like some of the kids graduating now, through no fault of their own, they will probably NEVER make more than say someone from 5-10 years ago simply because the economy isn’t as good and the guy 10 years ago is already established in a higher paying/better job than the new guy.
The Chinese/Indian kid works harder because they come from an environment where the competition is tougher/harder or their life is just harder that they don’t want to go back to that.
Sorta like if you play sports and everyone is simply better, you tend to be better too since that’s your training/competition.
The Chinese or Indian immigrant grew up from more humble tougher beginnings and simply wants it more than most native born American.
This pisses off a lot of non-immigrant asian people, but in a few years, these new people would be behind as well probably…however, the difference is that asian families tend to help their kids far more than the typical white person I think so the asians will still be buying up all the nice area homes etc since the parents will help them.
Overall, for most Americans, just based on where they were in standard of living before, inequality, tax laws and all the hands to feed, future prospects would probably be lower than say China which has improved probably the quality of life for more folks (totally guessing here)…assuming they were on a farm with no running water, etc…