Each generation has it hard in a different way.
My father and mother's generation hardness was the years of the depression, no work, no benefits, real starvation and then war and death for millions, fairly high childhood mortality and pretty much zero opportunities for women to earn and lift families out of poverty as married women were usually forced to give up their jobs on marriage our etc.
My generation - pre baby boom (born during the war) had other hardships - spending childhood nights in bomb shelters with parents wondering if we would all be alive come the morning, no NHS - everything had to be paid for over and above taxes, rationing, rudimentary antibiotics and vaccines only in the 40s/50s (my primary class alone at school had one pupil die from polio, one in leg irons from polio and another blinded by measles), bomb sites for playgrounds, only 10 per cent of population could get a place at university, no maternity leave, flexible working or child care, only a one-off small maternity grant, little disabilities help, no equal opportunities so huge pay gaps etc., no rights for women to rent, have mortgages loans without male guarantor (until the late 70s).Now, any savings we have made for care in our old age so we are not a burden on the state are rapidly being eroded by rubbish interest rates.
For younger people the hardships are poor job prospects, expensive education leading to debt, ultra high house prices and general cost of living, prospect of having to work into their 70s etc.
Each generation suffers or gains in its own way I think.
For myself as a well-off (though not wealthy) pensioner I am glad that the inbuilt 'save for the future attitude' that prevailed in my generation is enabling me to help my adult children and even though I have just retired after a working life of nearly 50 years I don't think pensioners should be exempt from cuts as we all have to make sacrifices. However, cuts will mean less available to help my family and less available for my dotage - thus inevitably I will probably cost the taxpayer more than I would have done were I to be allowed to keep more of what I spent 50 years earning.
But I dislike this "we had it harder than you" attitude. It's not a competition.