I here you, I really do but it's worth noting a few things for the sake of some gloomy young person reading this and not giving up hope.

Firstly the Federal Reserve has committed to severely raising rates over the next year(s) to combat inflation. This is going to help things tremendously. With that said it's going to remove liquidity from the economy at large which is going to hurt vulnerable people which rely on liquid cash flows to support their real spending needs (rent, food, ect...). Without sounding cold it could be argued that financing the vulnerable classes this way is part of what got us in this mess to begin with but I'll leave that alone.

How is it exactly that we might, "decouple from Russia/China?" We live in a global economy. We can't stop incentives from developing which allow China to compete in the global labor economy without what is effectively, "post-Westphalian" war tactics being employed. We could use our military to call bullshit on China's devaluation of its own currency and the like but what would this accomplish? World War? Do you see my point? Try to see the, "what" and not the, "why." I don't see how investing in aerospace presents an obvious solution to some problem but I agree that we need to find some way of going back to leading the world in scientific innovation if we're ever able to regain our former stature. Couldn't hurt I suppose.

You're over a consumption based economy? I can see what you're getting at but what's a viable replacement? Who exactly are the, "loud" voices arguing for Communism or Marxism exactly? It seems that if anything the world is turning to right-wing authoritarianism. Look at Bolsanaro in Brasil, Orban in Hungary, Trump in the United States, Modi in India, Lukaschenko in Belarus (...). China's ascendency has largely been fueled by a movement AWAY from traditional Marxist values. The Chinese are closer to, "Neoliberalism without restrictions" than any form of real Communism or Socialism. I think it may be very foolish to consider the, "attitudes of young people" in this mostly abstract sense. In the 1960's it was assumed young people tended toward, "Pinko" causes because of the outgrowth of youth culture but as history and culture have shown that this was mostly paranoia. It's especially worth noting that, "homes, children, established careers, modest savings" are things that have been a privilege historically. The narrative that the previous generations could, "get a job and buy a house" is misleading and ignores important social contexts'. I think it's entirely possible that a cross-section of young people buys into this narrative primarily because their parents and grandparents were PRECISELY the small cross section of the public which found itself, "middle class gilded" in the post-war period anyway. I don't see many Black and Latino kids complaining about these problems as much upper middle class white kids; the irony being that it's the kids that were expected to end up, "rich" anyway who are most disaffected by the lack of opportunity. Sounds like bullshit to me.

I think it's very unlikely that China has any real intention of invading Taiwan. They'll have learned from Ukraine. It will be a disaster and it will make China a global pariah and China wouldn't be resilient enough at this stage to support itself without a heavily subsidized export economy. That's just the thing though-- there's a body of literature to suggest that the, "Thucydides Trap" may not apply to the containment of China and that rather the real threat is a socially and economically stagnant China using Taiwan as a last ditch effect to re-invigorate a sense of nationalism in the general and especially older population. There's been comment though that this might not work as, "Chinese grandmas don't want to send their only grandsons to die in Taiwan." (quote from Michael Beckley)

https://foreignpolicy.com/2021/09/24/china-great-power-unite...

To your last point these all seem like reasonable things. I don't see why you've included them.