Although much is made of the different experiences of the generational groups, periodic economic upheaval is a familiar problem.
The mention last week of Ruth Richardson's 1991 "Mother of all Budgets'' would have made some older Gen Xers (aged 41 to 56) recall days of high unemployment and job insecurity.
The generation was also in its career prime during the recession in 2008. Even for the oldest Gen Xers, technology and the internet has had an impact on jobs for decades.
But unlike Millennials, some got through university before the student loan scheme was introduced and were able to buy normally priced first homes. The stats suggest Kiwis of this generation were most likely to have got itchy feet and wandered off to foreign shores.
Friction might build between Boomers (57 to 75), the generation most in charge now and in the immediate past, with the rest who have to deal with climate change, especially Gen Z (9 to 24) and those younger.
But there is something which is common to the four main Kiwi generations.
Despite different ages, collectively they are all part of an era dating from the 1960s where people consistently don't tend to behave as though their age matters, and want to get the most out of life.
Back then, significant social change occurred in workplaces. Freedoms, fashions and attitudes about what people could do were a marked break with the more formal norms of the World War II and early Cold War era's Silent generation (1928-1945). And the pace of change has only quickened since then.
The adage that you're only as old as you feel has never been more true.
It's the cultural dividing line that knits Boomers (1946-1964), Gen X (1965-1980), Millennials (1981-1996) and Gen Z (1997-2012) together because modern life is geared towards these trends continuing.
Bob Dylan has just turned 80. Mick Jagger is less than two years away from that milestone. Everyone aged at least under 60 has grown up with varied but also common cultural references and messages about life.
Hand-me-down LPs, favourite films and books get passed between the generations. Not only are those artists being unearthed by youngsters who weren't around the first time, but older musical styles are recycling through new artists' hands.
Older Kiwis can pass on knowledge, skills, perspectives, and lessons on all sorts of things and gain from what younger New Zealanders have to offer in return.
While inter-generational rivalry can just be viewed in a light-hearted way, at personal and public levels it can mean a lot of talking past each other and knee-jerk exasperation.
Differences in generational attitudes and positions in society will increasingly play out at a political level on the major issues of the day.
