Note how the slope lessens during the 1990s when there were strong employment opportunities for young men. Its steep climb now is another indicator of how our economy is not working well for young people.
I turned 23 in 1967. By then I had had an honorable discharge from the USN for two years, I had a graduation certificate from the USN electronics school which was 38 weeks of intensive study. I had a job earning $110. a week which was easily more money than $1100. a week is now in real terms. I was driving a new car which I bought for myself. I was actually living with my parents but I was helping support them, not vice versa. Was I considered a success? No, in my area I was considered a failure because I did not already have a wife and at least one child. It may have been different in some places but the attitude where I lived was that any male who was still single after his 22nd birthday, unless he was enrolled in higher education, was worthless and no account, one woman where I worked actually asked me what was wrong with me that I was 23 years old and not married. I finally married just after turning 28 and by then everyone was dumbstruck because they had decided I would never marry.