Isn't it foolish to always want to blame problems on the next generation?

I think about this often, but people are constantly blaming “young people” or “kids today” for all sorts of social ills.

Yesterday, I heard someone suggest that reintroducing spanking in schools would eradicate mass violence like shootings or stabbings. The other day, I overheard an elderly man blaming the state of the economy on the fact that young people are lazy and want everything handed to them.

Isn’t it foolish to think that we are so different from every other generation? Isn’t it short sighted to believe that all of the major problems that we face as a society probably have complex solutions, otherwise they would not be problems in the first place? Why is it so easy to assume the worst of people? Are we actually becoming worse as a species or do we just have better resources with which to spread the worst of our habits and the consequences?