I've definitely turned into the paranoid nutcase within my friend group in recent years, I hate that everything is "smart" nowadays requiring an app/internet connection & account, just to do basic things that didn't require any of that before.
What's some things currently making you ramble like an old man?
I know accountant/lawyer/engineer types who have to live with room mates and are struggling to save up deposits for buying housing even though they make good money.
Even in these previously prestigious positions junior employees get paid shit and get worked to the bone in exchange for the promise of big (like $10k+ a year) raises. Over recent years the starting salaries have not kept up with inflation and even the raises are getting smaller and smaller. In theory you're supposed to be financially comfortable "mid career" but that used to be 5 years in and now appears more like 10 or even 15 years in.
Doctors, bankers, top tier lawyers and consultants may be exceptions to this trend, but then again those are jobs where people literally drop dead from overwork so that's a different type of hell.
Yeah I know a guy irl who's training to be a lawyer and he says that in companies he's been at its apparently the norm to work roughly 300 hours or so a month
12 hours a day, 6 days a week, 4 weeks a month works out to 288 hours, so yeah that sounds about right for some of these places.
Not uncommon for a first year associate to bill out enough to cover their entire yearly salary in the first quarter and the rest of the year is just profit for the firm.