To understand "generational" behavior it's helpful to understand the prevailing conditions at the time.

Obviously these become somewhat sweeping generalizations but they largely hold.

A concern either waste directly correlates to abundance. Countries with historical (ie post war) food insecurity treat food like it is precious. Even if it has since become abundant.

People who grow up with financial insecurity spend money very carefully, even if they now earn plenty.

These attitudes span generations. The attitude of parents often gets taught to children. Although in some cases a generation will "flip".

For example, the post war boom in births lead to a generation that had to compete for infrastructure all the time. There were limited school places, jobs, promotions etc. "Winning" became the driving force. Winners got rewarded, losers got left behind.

Their children (x-gen) refused to play the game. They prioritized family over work. They handed out trophies for "participation". They talk about "work / life" balance.

Each of us is a product of our upbringing. Some things we carry forward as important values. Others we actively discard as unwanted mistakes our parents made.

On the upside our kids will do the same.