the overwhelming majority of youngest workers are unburdened with marriage, children, mortgage, and car loans. it's the boomers over 35 who are completely and irrevocably fucked. good luck maintaining the lifestyle your and your family had developed during the brief ZIRP era now in the perpetual layoff era.

in Russia, we've got a bit of a head start with losing tech jobs. among my friends and acquaintances, young unattached guys who aren't in tech are the least affected, and while they are mildly inconvenienced by being unable to buy games on Steam without jumping through some hoops with Kazakhstan middlemen, most of them barely notice the sanctions that were supposed to make us all revolt. young unattached guys in tech had also adapted, most by leaving, some by switching to blue collar work for the time being, which pays decently enough if you aren't accustomed to having a first world salary while living in a shithole country. and those ones who were - the guys who moved to Moscow for high paying jobs that existed until four years ago, got married, got mortgages, got decent cars, the ones who 'built a life', those are the ones whose 'life' is absolutely fucking miserable now. the jobs they had are gone, the jobs they have now don't pay nearly as well, and even if they could leave (most can't), their chances of ever living the good life again are slim to none.

I assume it will play out similarly to our situation in the rest of the world once AI actually gets good enough to actually cull knowledge workers rather than just justify layoffs with. it's way, way easier to survive if you're young and solo.