I can't add much to the great conversation and insight you guys have provided, but I do recall about a decade ago when all those young people were protesting Wall Street. Remember when they had huge protests outside the NY Stock Exchange and demanded jobs, opportunities, and recognition from the "big shot" wall street crowd?
One thing that stayed with me was when a CNBC reporter went into a crowd of early 20's protesters and did interviews. One question he asked was telling.
"If you were to get a job offer out of this event, what would be your starting salary requirement?" -- Without fail, every one of those young people interviewed made salary demands of over $70,000/yr. Some thought that they were worth well over $100K. That was about a decade ago and granted it was in NYC, but the sheer matter of fact expectations that these young folks had was telling.
They had no previous experience, were recent college grads (or close to that), and wanted a salary that was commensurate with someone already working for several years in a NYC job market.
It was a very enlightening series of interviews, and made me realize that these young folks had expectations that were far away higher than previous generations.