I was raised by "Greatest Generation" parents. Dad, now gone over 20 years was a WWII fighter pilot, Mom now 90, worked her entire life. They raised my sister and I with their generations work ethic and thankfully realized that education and "values" were the most important things to pass on tho their children. They endured a lot to give us the best educational opportunities they could.
The values that the "greatest Generation" had were passed down to their children. The same as how their parents and grandparents have done for years. Those values and the education that their efforts made possible stuck with some of their children and then Vietnam and the '60's took over. It was the "I'm okay and your okay" creed that said that if it feels alright do it and you'll be fine with no consequences.
Once the fear of consequences is absolved next was the reward for no success. Then the spiral continued downward where the respect for life and individuality is done away with, then the lack of respect for authority, and then the law. In the meantime succeeding generations failed to pass down the way that they were brought up. This is opulence at its worst.
We have raised our four children with those same values and have spared no expense or effort to give them the best opportunities available. I regard this as my number one responsibility since we brought them into this world.
So...like all generalizations this one is only partly accurate, as some of the posters here have pointed out. It is and has been a recurring theme in our society and others, somehow things go on.
We raised our children with the attitude that work was a benefit for their hands and brains. They were educated in schools, but were also expected to earn their rewards.
My son came to my one day when he was in Middle school and was taking wood working and said that he was earning a "B" in his course work. I asked him why he wasn't doing better as he had been working with wood working tools since he was three. He gave a half witted answer and I said that my expectations for him was nothing less than an "A" because he had the fundamentals and now he had to apply them and make them better. He did just that not only in that class but in many future classes. This is what I learned from my parents and family and what I tried to pass on. Learn and advance.
On the other side of the coin one of my children spouses was raised in the environment of being rewarded for showing up and learned no survival skills (that has been changed). This child looked at my children as being super smart and the ability to do anything that needed to be done. From cooking to handling their finances, to just simply planting a garden.
One of my kids said that they were raised with uncompromising expectations in a home where education was valued and rewarded as long as they worked to exceed their level.
One of my son's friends didn't know how to put his bicycle chain on after it came off the sprockets, I had to show him how to it. The friend was 29 and I was approaching 60. It's said think that such a simple skill was not taught to him by his father. I learned that skill when I was 5 from my grand father.
So if there is something that could make a difference would be teach the younger generations the value of life, knowledge, conversation, and survival skills of all sorts .
From my family I learned the value of a college education, how to work my hands, and to care for all the people that I deal with. I rose in my field but I also made some of the furniture in my house, wood carved, and can change by own oil, do some mechanical tasks. I do think that I have passed on these traits to my children and hope that they continue to process.
