Australians born after 1980 have not enjoyed what you would describe as “a good run.” The first generation to live entirely under neoliberalism, millennials have endured stagnant wages, insecure work, soaring rents and housing prices, and decades of cuts to health, education, and welfare. It’s an experience starkly at odds with that of baby boomers, who lived in an era of unprecedented, albeit unevenly distributed, progress.

However, as much as landlords in and out of parliament lecture their tenants about frugality and hard work, younger people are increasingly realizing that the system is stacked against them. In his new book, I, Millennial, Melbourne comedian Tom Ballard gives his take on this generational shift to the left:

Millennial outrage is not rooted in a belief that we live in the worst of all possible worlds. Rather, we are worn down and infuriated by how hard and unfair the status quo is, when it could clearly be so much fucking better. We know only too well that things could be a lot easier and fairer because for the bulk of our parents’ generation, they were.