Ha, I see what you are saying about a self-selected group of posters here that have a certain orientation, and that we also all tend to have friends of a certain self selected type.
I felt like reminiscing a bit and looked over my ~200 facebook friends to see if I could find these Gen Y victims of circumstance that were having a rough go at it. My earlier assumptions were basically confirmed - not a whole lot of tales of sadness.
The best I could do was find around 8 people who can best be described as "aspiring artists" (a dancer/actress, a movie producer, a number of painters, jewelry maker/crafter, a photographer). Excepting one, they all have jobs that pay enough for them to get by (2 work at fresh market or whole foods or something, 1 is a barista / cupcake sales professional, others have similar low paid service employment). 2 of those aspiring artists will probably make a living at their art at some point, the others don't appear to be on that trajectory. They all do what they want and seem to live comfortably, although who wouldn't want a cushier job with more money?
The only guy I know (among my self selected FB "friends") that has hit hard times was a guy that barely finished high school, never went to college, did a few years at a max security state prison for cocaine trafficking and distribution, and since serving his debt to society he has had a hard time finding good stable employment (wonder why?). Last time I saw him he had just lost his job as a temp laborer at a landscaping nursery, his 20 year old minivan was barely running, and he was grabbing a bite at Taco Bell with his family on the way to dropping his wife off at her housekeeping job at a local hotel. The guy's life is going to be full of hard times regardless of the economy.
I know 1 person that works in a "factory". He makes $20/hr plus time and a half overtime working the night shift at a medical products specialty printing/labeling/warehousing gig. Not bad for no college education.
But that's not to say the other people I know aren't involved in the production of physical things. IP attorneys, infrastructure engineers, programmers, MD's or phds working in pharmaceutical research, nuke plant engineer, computer chip designer, industrial power equipment logistics engineer. Many of the rest are providing services (mostly medical, educational, or legal). I don't think anyone I know is wishing we could have some magical manufacturing renaissance where they could work 12 hour shifts operating a machine in an uncomfortable factory environment instead of whatever they are doing right now. Except maybe that guy that's an ex-con and can't keep a job.