Middle-aged guy in a flyover state who hears this crap far too often. As though young people or certain groups are the problem.
If you want to combat this nonsense and I want to share some publicly available info. It isn't that people don't want to work. It is that older people are leaving the workforce or maybe don't want to work.
There are more people employed, total number, than prior to the pandemic. (https://tradingeconomics.com/united-states/employed-persons)
The unemployment rate is lower than prior to the pandemic. (u-3 report, the normal unemployment)
The number of people who want jobs and have them is greater than before the pandemic. (u-6 report – U-6 includes everyone not accounted for in the U-3 rate—discouraged, underemployed, and unemployed workers in the country. )
The Participation Rate (total number of people who could work and do work) from 20-54 is GREATER than pre-pandemic.(https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/LNS11300060)
The participation rate of 55+ is what has dropped pretty drastically post-pandemic and not recovered. (https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/LNS11324230)
I am not sure how covid deaths impacted this, but it likely did and probably at a higher rate for older folks.