If you’ve spent any time at all on TikTok recently, you’ll have seen plenty of videos from young people despairing about life in the UK. Videos with captions like “Why is everything so expensive?” “Why is rent so high?” “Why can’t I get a doctor’s appointment?” are going viral every day. With no clear answers, let alone solutions, to any of these questions, many are opting to leave the country altogether.

Now more than ever, young people feel as though they are facing these challenges alone. Without the social and community infrastructure that was destroyed by austerity, they have nowhere to go for support. And the hypercompetitive culture created by neoliberal capitalism — reinforced by a toxic “hustle” mindset pushed by some of the most popular voices on social media — encourages them to blame themselves when things get tough.

It would be easy to dismiss these trends as the complaints of young people unused to hard work. But their concerns are borne out by the statistics.