I've got a great buddy John. John is about 60, give or take and is retired from a hard job. John and his wife have been able to afford fun but responsible lives.
John worked a job that was physically hard. He delivered lots of heavy things to my bf's work. That's how we all met. When John was retiring, he was training in his replacement. I vividly remember hearing John say things to the extent of “they'll (john's employer) never pay him what they pay me”, and “they hired him for damn near what they hired me for 30 years ago”. I don't think his replacement ever heard John say this stuff. John was very professional on the job.
The replacement isn't doing as good of a job as John did. Yes he's newer, but it's been at least a year. But, I also think in today's society, he knows he's not going to be valued like John. He's not going to be compensated like John. Replacement guy isn't going to be able to afford a decent house ouside the city. Hell, nowadays that house goes for 500k. I don't know what you have to make to afford that, but it's well outta mine and most people I know's budget.
It's not John's fault that the company isn't paying as much. He earned every dollar he made. It's not John's fault property values sky rocketed. It's not replacement guy's fault for not wanting to work as hard for a lot less. The value of the worker has gone down, so the quality of the work has gone down. Businesses want to blame the workers, but you get what you pay for.