The Economist "Why Gen X Is the Real Loser Generation". Do you relate more to X or Millennial in economic timing?

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Dry_Inspection_4583@reddit

I've had the rug pulled out at every turn.

Get a job and keep your head down, hard work pays off.... Not a single time in my life has this played out in my favour.

Get an education, you'll make x per year and be set... Sorry we're only offering 1/2 of x for new hires, and you need experience.

That was my entrance into adulthood, alongside the gaslighting by boomers, well you must not have worked hard enough. Or my favorite "You just need to...."

And it hasn't improved, they slapped on "credit scores", stock buy backs, stagnant wages, inadequate and misused "minimum wage". And overall hung onto high income jobs just to extract capital.

I've been grifted, lied to, misled, stolen from... And I'm done, I have no more fucks to give.

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NoExam2412@reddit

The removal of pensions really did it. They didn't have to squirrel away 20% of their income from retirement. Not only have wages stagnated, we can't even use a chunk of ours.

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afleetingmoment@reddit

I can’t imagine the difference in my financial life if I had known from 22-23 that my retirement would be set for good at a comfortable level.

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I wasn't allowed to ask about bills or money growing up in my house. When my one income "leaders" spoke of such things, I was shooed from the room. I didn't know it was ok to be a single woman with a job to support herself. I was brought up with the "find a man to take care of you" scenario. Parental divorce, my own divorce, and, in the mean time, I raised my kids to be financially independent. I got the shaft by not being taught financials and my retirement will be me working until I'm dead.

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SockGnome@reddit

Older millennial here, I got a job after college that shockingly still offered a pension but every few years they chipped away at it. Now they’re killed it and offered us a little more 401k match to make up for it. It was the only reason I stuck around this job.

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closhedbb80@reddit (OP)

Did they grandfather you into the pension offering, or did they just dangle it in front of you for decades and then switch it off in favor of 401K matching long after it's too late for you to make use of that?

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SockGnome@reddit

I’m grandfathered / vested in what is there now, but I’m only gonna get small returns on it now with the company no longer contributing a dime. So, thankfully I’ll still get SOMETHING when it comes time to collect but I’m in the middle of my career so I’m disappointed in the possibilities that could’ve been.

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scottwsx96@reddit

Baby boomers didn’t really get pensions either for the most part. My parents didn’t nor did any of their peers that I know.

The big pension generations were greatest and silent. Earlier than boomer.

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NoExam2412@reddit

Both my parents are boomers and they both have pensions.

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gravteck@reddit

If anyone is wondering, I read this in "These Are The Plunderers" but I can't find it through my marks for exact percentages, but I believe pension contributions in the 80s were roughly 11% of employee salary vs the 4.5% today. You can do all the clever mathematics you want (pass it along I have the degree), but employees shoulder nearly double the burden towards retirement savings at the whims of the market. The market pressures for pensions existed, but it was a lot different.

Let's also not forget that Reagan and Congress blessed private equity with a goddamn knightship in the 80s so rapidly that in 1989 the average CEO made 69 times the average workers pay and today it is fucking 324x. That meant salary's and pay languished for over decade and the median consumer credit card debt rose 57% from 818 bucks in 1983, to 1900 bucks in 1989.

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nitrot150@reddit

Exactly, we got somewhat lucky with thr housing market compared to current generations, but missed a lot of managerial spots and places to increase normal wealth in the mean time .

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Dry_Inspection_4583@reddit

Maybe at one point that was true, a decade or more ago. Places here are all being sold for 600k+ CAD. Now I'm not a banker, but how taf do people even qualify for these places without lying? And that's not for a brand new place on an acreage, that's a 2 bedroom shanty in the middle of nowhere.

And my rent, well my rent would tell you indeed I can afford said mortgage, but why? Housing is not supposed to be a capital investment vehicle, but we the west seem okay with it being exploited as such.

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nitrot150@reddit

I was just saying, a lot of us (and especially the older gen X) got lucky to be more ready to buy a house when costs were lower, it be crazy out there now

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Dry_Inspection_4583@reddit

Fair and correct. I'm a bit butthurt if you can't tell

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nitrot150@reddit

Totally reasonable! West coast prices are crazy. I got lucky and bought mine in 2014 before it went off the charts

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Dry_Inspection_4583@reddit

We got grifted by a bank that demanded the funds go to a contractor, who promptly took the money and ran, then demanded we repay the mortgage.... Good times.

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Individual-Schemes@reddit

Buy a house! No wait, you can't afford a house! Be a renter for your entire life!

This is where I feel the most butthurt. I feel like we were squeezed out of any opportunities to buy property.

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Dry_Inspection_4583@reddit

Just replied to another comment with pretty much that same sentiment. Your rent says you can afford a million dollar mansion, but I've built houses as a career, they aren't worth what people are asking.

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PunningWild@reddit

I have no more fucks to give.

...My fucks have runneth dry.

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OneSpirit6018@reddit

I am 50 and I find it far more rewarding helping people into my field. I want them to avoid the problems we had, and I want them to be successful.

I spoke to a grad student last week who was so appreciative that I took time to speak with her. She told me her fellow students are hitting walls trying to talk to people in the industry.

We need to build up our younger generations, make them stronger.

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dcamnc4143@reddit

I know we are discussing a whole generation, but it highly depends on the individual too. I'm a X'er, 1975. My early boomer parents were fine, no problems. I knew early on that I wanted, well, money. I did what it took to get it, and am a debt & mortgage free multi-millionaire; and I'm about to retire somewhat early. Many of my old buddies are in precarious money situations, but many of them aren't.

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DarthKingBatman@reddit

One of the biggest talking points from this article is that a component of Gen X’s financial insecurity is caused by needing to additionally support Gen Z.

Essentially, all generations post-boomer have a share of the struggle caused by the boomer generation’s inability or unwillingness to engage in the world to meaningfully reduce the struggles of others.

I think this article really, really misses the mark. We should be working toward solidarity with the generations affected by boomer policies, not competing for who has it worse. This was a great opportunity to make a difference, thrown away on the altar of bitterness.

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Hippy_Lynne@reddit

I remember back in the 80s talk about Boomers being a sandwich generation because they were raising children while also helping take care of their elderly parents. But they at least had good paying jobs and affordable living. Their problem was more a shortage of time & energy, not money. And even when it was money, it was about not being able to afford luxuries, not struggling to pay for the basics.

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theoneandonly6558@reddit

My and my spouse's experience was boomers were using their parents for help and simultaneously not parenting their kids. So a sandwich but without bread or something. Just a meat sandwich, where boomers are the meat and nothing else mattered.

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OneLongEyebrowHair@reddit

This was my parents exactly. Both of them. Leaches on their parents and completely absent during my childhood. I don't even know where they were because I know they weren't working that much. Luckily for me, it caught up to them and they are both gone. That sounds shitty and I do miss them, but I feel like I never knew either one of them at all.

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Seldarin@reddit

Not parenting their kids that are now having to parent their boomer parents.

Bonus points for the ones that expected the kids they didn't parent to drop everything and return to care for them in their dotage.

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davidwhom@reddit

My grandmother and me and my siblings were all taking care of each other back and forth (grandma picks us up from school, I stay overnight at her house after she has a surgery…etc). My mother only worked part time the whole time.

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auramaelstrom@reddit

This comment made me laugh. 100% true of the boomers. I'm now caring for my boomer parents.

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MartialBob@reddit

This in particular frustrates me. My grandparents were active participants in my childhood. They were babysitters, offered advice and functionally independent until within a year or so of their passing. My father has already passed away and my sister and I manage our mother who never had to 100% take care of herself. If it wasn't for my sister's in-laws, who are Gen X, her and her husband would be on their own with their kids.

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theclansman22@reddit

Since then we have had 40 years of trickle down economics leading to us not investing any money into infrastructure at any level of government, municipal, state, federal are now sitting with huge infrastructure deficits that younger generations will either pay off, or live with lower service levels.

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New_Stats@reddit

I think this article really, really misses the mark

This sums up most economist articles. They draw the wrong conclusions and have shit opinions they pass off as correct and factual just because they used some data points

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JenninMiami@reddit

This is my situation. I did everything right, I was financially stable and had my future secure…

Then my GenZ kid got into an abusive relationship, and I have gone almost completely bankrupt not just from supporting my adult child and grandson, but almost 50k in the last two years in the legal battle. Sometimes I can relate to Tiger King when he said “I will never financially recover from this.” 😆

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PlantedinCA@reddit

One of my friends (married/no kids) has had less extreme, but still challenging situation taking cate if a nephew. The nephew has made a lot of bad decisions and their parents suck.

My friends took in the kid after he got out of jail, helped him get settled and move into an apartment, and help him now that he has a kid with a dead beat girl. Not even their kid! Extended family is jumping in to care for these errant kids and family members.

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JenninMiami@reddit

Sometimes it can just be an incredible burden taking care of the people you love. My boomer dad told me that I was enabling her…like what? Should I let her be homeless and lose my fucking grandson?!

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TheForce_v_Triforce@reddit

Well said. I just want to add that the assumption that everyone in a given generation has the same economic experience is laughable. The reality is that people across all generations born to wealthy parents are far more likely to have gone to a good school, gotten good jobs and invested in real estate and the stock market to yield long term financial benefits, while those born to the other 80% or so within every generation are less likely to have had any of those opportunities.

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legalpretzel@reddit

Older Gen X is supporting Gen Z and silent generation parents. The boomers have the money and only the youngest gen xers/xennials have boomer parents. Some of us also still have young kids (mine is 10 - the cost of daycare prevented us from having more). Sure, some boomer parents spread the wealth while they are alive, but not to the extent that it redistributes it in a timely manner to allow us to let it compound before we ourselves retire.

I will never travel or have the things my boomer parents had. They got divorced and remarried so even when they die, their assets are tied to supporting their new spouses. I’ve accepted that I will never see an inheritance from anyone ever and will work until I’m 72 at which point I can retire with 80% pension benefits.

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apocbane@reddit

The medias job is to pit us against each other however they can so we don’t go against the real problem, the wealthy.

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Sleep_Till_5373@reddit

X. I've bought a home, twice..thanks to the lax pre-07 lending and then thanks to the fallout real estate correction in the '10s.

But the recession scared the shit out of me so I spent the next nearly two decades prioritizing making sure I'm good for the future instead of actually living. Now I'm in my mid 40s and really nothing to show for it except an unfulfilling, comfortable career, chronic pain and an empty, quiet house. So I feel "lied to" about how life was supposed to go but I recognize that it's still a fortunate place to be in anyway especially now, but it's all luck primarily due to when I just happened to be born. I really have nothing to complain about but I'm just existing.

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manawydan-fab-llyr@reddit

Now I'm in my mid 40s and really nothing to show for it except an unfulfilling, comfortable career, chronic pain and an empty, quiet house. So I feel "lied to" about how life was supposed to go

Friend, my story is similar to yours, and I'm sure there are many more like us.

The recession didn't scare me, but my boomer parents kind of used it to the same effect. "You have a decent job, think of the future, save for retirement," "You don't want a wife and kids, that will leave you poor," and crap like that. They would point to the struggles of others because of the recession to make their point.

I bought into it.

So, from that point till now I worked my ass off to save for that "future," the one I feel I won't get to see anyway.

I work in a civil service job in NYC. Steady paycheck? Check. Toxic environment as fuck. Check. Soul sucking. Check.

I come home like you, to a empty, quiet house, that I bought during the correction. That house I was supposed to have a future in. After a long commute every day, sucks even more of the soul.

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Sleep_Till_5373@reddit

Yea I didn't grow up "poor" but money wasn't exactly flowing to my parents either. I was the first in the family to go to college so in my mind I didn't go through all that just to end up broke so seeing what the recession did to people scared me a bit.

I'm civil service also (feds and yep I'm furloughed lol) so our situations are almost identical. I said I'm just existing, but I don't regret anything necessarily and know if life was the other way, there's a chance that deep down I'd wish I'd waited to _____. Grass always seems greener, but is it? Still, it's hard to shake the "is this all there is" feeling as it seems time flies by faster each day. Anyway 🤜🏾.

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manawydan-fab-llyr@reddit

Still, it's Still, it's hard to shake the "is this all there is" feeling as it seems time flies by faster each day.

Yeah you're working against 20+ years of self programming. Its not an easy thing to do.

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Electronic-Rise1859@reddit

First, why are we having current political discussion here. 2nd, since when did my people start crying generational blame? We have never done this, sad to start now. If you really think it was not pure corporate greed after WWII seeing two incomes now in a home I believe you may be barking up the wrong tree.

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wyc1inc@reddit

I think my economic timing is uniquely Xennial (early 80s). I graduated college into the aftermath of the dot com /9-11 econ bust. I was probably better off than people that graduated 2 years earlier, but stuff like internships really dried up while I was in college. UE was about 5.5% when I graduated, not that much lower than that cycle high of 6.5ish IIRC, and UE would bottom 3 years later that cycle. So not great timing there at all.

Then even worse was going to grad school (law) and graduating right into the GFC. So kind of a double whammy bad luck scenario.

Contrast this to my youngest sibling who is technically a millennial but among the last ones. He graduated college in 2018. UE was under 4%! Found a job easily, bounced into another higher paying job, and then to the job he's at now. COVID was a mere blip for him cause then the labor shortages of 2021 hit and he got even more money/bonus/promotions. He's doing great.

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rjcpl@reddit

Definitely going to be rough with Gen X. What with the end of pensions in favor of self funding retirement. And dealing with the AI transition and loss of jobs and upheaval that will cause in the last couple decades before retirement. Millennials and younger will have some more time to adapt to whatever the future brings.

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homewithplants@reddit

As someone who falls into one or the other, depending on how you define it, I'd say the older Gen Xers started to feel the death of opportunity before they conceptualized it. They weren't launching, somehow, and they weren't where their parents were at the same age. But they still thought that maybe it was like their parents said, and they chose it and were slackers. They bought into this idea that was out there in the culture that maybe they were just too cool, and they would get there when they were ready. And they were "slackers" but as a defense mechanism, I think.

A lot also bought into the idea that they were supposed to be activists in their youth. And a lot of people were- people forget that GenX were sarcastic, but also really idealistic. They weren't nihilists. That's just the narrative. Plenty of Boomer parents fucked around their entire youth in a VW microbus dropping acid in communes or protesting about 'Nam, and now they had high-paying safe jobs with a BWM and a McMansion. There was supposed to be time. They thought they would have the trajectory Boomers had, and they didn't understand fast enough that this was over. It wasn't a temporary driftless period of youth - they were just screwed/

Later Millennials knew things were bad from the get go. The ones born after the mid-80s always knew they wouldn't have what the Boomers have. They intellectually got it, but they are still emotionally processing it. It's a dark thing to be screwed over from the start but always have the example in front of you that it wasn't always like this, and it didn't have to be that way - but you can't fix it. The system is too broken, and you don't really have a voice.

The Gen Z I work with are all saving like mad and planning to retire at 50. They are more like my Great Depression Era grandparents than anyone else I've met.

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Jonestown_Juice@reddit

A lot also bought into the idea that they were supposed to be activists in their youth. And a lot of people were- people forget that GenX were sarcastic, but also really idealistic. They weren't nihilists. That's just the narrative.

Plenty of Gen X are just Boomer 2.0. You know, the Howard Stern/Opie and Anthony crowd. All those dummies you went to high school with who didn't pay attention in class because they were just going to work at the local plant or dad's dealership/landscaping business/whatever.

They grew up ignorant and entitled and mad that they can't say "faggot" anymore.

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homewithplants@reddit

I guess that’s sort of what I’m getting at. Like mentally most of Gen X bought into the way things used to be. They inherited their parents’ worldview and their parents’ expectations about what kind of life they would have - like party in HS and then get a safe manufacturing job, or do well in school, party not too much in college, and then have a cushy office job. That never materialized for most, but they still identify with it. Millennials I think are just the most pissed off generation. Gen Z are survivor mentality.

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soren_1981@reddit

Can’t read the article, but Gen X could afford to buy homes in major cities. That’s a major advantage over millennials.

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stompy1@reddit

https://archive.ph/CZqdN

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PlantedinCA@reddit

I am largely from the Bay Area. Born in 1978. Do when I graduated college the dotcom boom was about to hit. Then 9/11. The local economy was a disaster. I spent my early 20s working in retail.

Finally things got a bit better in 2004 and I got an ok non-technical job at a crappy tech company. But small companies largely could not afford retirement programs. Then the Great Recession. It helped to have more experience then. But it didn’t help with career advancement.

What I found in tech by 2014 is that the millennials where getting promoted and if you were not already senior by 2008 you didn’t get promoted. Folks my age just got skipped. I had plenty of experience and no bites.

I was static in terms of leveling in my career from like 2012-2023. Ironically it really helps that my boss now helped me get that next title - and they were in a really similar boat of career progression and getting stuck at a 3 years older than me.

So now here in 2025. In terms of home ownership, my peers that own homes in the state are folks that are married (either a software engineer, doctor, lawyer or married to one). And they were able to better take advantage of some of those lows. The single unmarried friends (like me) are just doing ok at wealth building.

I was able to but a condo last year. A one bedroom condo. My boss got married recently and bought a house ~2-3 years ago in their late 40s.

And my friends? Well the xennials like me or young xers? I bought a condo, another friend my age bought one in 2024. No one else has managed home ownership.

The older millennials I know (mid 80s babies): marriage doesn’t correlate with home ownership. A almost half own something. I don’t have many xer friends (those late 60s/early 70s ones) but the ones I know bought in the great recession.

Considering that our age group is where marriage rates started tanking, the senior years are going to be a lot harder if you didn’t have the wealth building benefits of being partnered.

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Hippy_Lynne@reddit

Maybe half of Xers could. If they stayed on the timeline and graduated from high school or college, start working immediately, and made a decent money by the time they were 30 then yes. If they hit any kind of financial bumps like job loss, divorce, medical event, etc, they missed the opportunity.

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countzero1234@reddit

Probably Millennial but it's hard to say. Graduated undergrad in 2001 with an engineering degree that might as well have been toilet paper for all the good it did. Ended up at Radio Shack and then a grocery store for years. Ripped my credit to shreds.

Back to school, MS in 2007. Got a job and was lucky enough that I was cheap enough to not get let go during the 2008 crisis. Took years to rebuild my credit and by the time I did I was entirely priced out of buying a home of any kind. Through some lucky moves I've managed to actually get some good money and might be able to buy a small condo but I feel far far behind at 46 than where I should be.

I'll probably only be forced to retire at this rate once ageism catches up to me. And this is all without kids, can't even imagine how people with kids manage.

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Turbomattk@reddit

It’s because the Boomers fucked it up for everyone else. They got theirs and said fuck you to anyone else and started pulling up the ladders. They are the greediest and most selfish generation. The world will be a better place when they are no longer in control. That won’t happen until those pretentious pricks all die off because they won’t let go.

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lostboy005@reddit

A lot of the existential crisis the world if facing is the death rattle of the boomers clinging to the very end of their lives and trying to burn everything down on their way out

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DBE113301@reddit

Anyone else a little worried that the current occupant of the White House is going to do this on his way out? It wouldn't surprise me in the least if, on his last day in office, he does something world-alteringly catastrophic. Sort of a "If I'm going out, I'm taking you with me" kind of thing.

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lostboy005@reddit

We’re collectively holding our breaths until January 2028, no doubt

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ofcourseIwantpickles@reddit

I look at it more as the insatiable billionaire class tilting the scales in their favor vs. a generational divide. Half of boomers are female, and they couldn't even open up a checking accout until the late 70's. Do you feel minorities had a great time in America in the 60's and 70's?

What it comes down to is the white male 1% in positions of power fucking over everyone. I don't think life was that peachy for all boomers just because it was an easy time to be a white man.

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IanCrapReport@reddit

What a miserable loser victim mentality. Blaming others for your own problems.

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Turbomattk@reddit

I’m doing fine. It’s everyone else and my kids generation that I’m worried about….boomer.

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IanCrapReport@reddit

I’d be worried about your kids too. Having them raised to blame their problems on everyone else.

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Turbomattk@reddit

I bet you’re really fun at parties.

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Microphone_Assassin@reddit

Where did they do that? Back to bed boomer.

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Whiskey_Water@reddit

I love how Boomer used to describe a generation, but now it’s definitely a state of mind.

There are plenty of people born in that time period who I wouldn’t never call “Boomer”, but regardless of age, I think you hit the nail on the head with this response.

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More-read-than-eddit@reddit

Username checks out

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stoudman@reddit

I'm biased, but my brother is Gen X and I'm a Millennial.

My brother had a job and a car at 16, he had multiple jobs before he was 20, and had made it pretty far in a particular career field before the Great Recession hit.

When the Recession hit, he had a little more trouble holding onto a job and making ends meet, but he was still capable of getting a job without trouble. He had so much experience under his belt at that point that he was obviously going to be the choice for employment over someone with little or no experience.

Myself, I graduated into the Great Recession -- I had an education, but no experience. With no experience, finding work was literally impossible. Nobody gave a shit about my education. I had to take unpaid work while living at home just to have something to do that I could put on my resume. It wasn't until I had some experience doing SOMETHING that anyone would actually consider me for a job.

It set me back a good 10 yrs in my career, no joke. I honestly did not get started with a reasonably paying job until 2018. That's what it was like.

I won't get into how right now is very, very much worse than that, also from personal experience, but suffice it to say that my brother as a Gen Xer had more of a chance to establish experience as a working man before the economy crashed in 2008, while I as a Millennial had zero chance to establish experience as a working man before the economy crashed in 2008.

Our lives look very different as a result.

And no, none of this impacts how we feel about each other, lest anyone be concerned, but it's a reality of the differences of our experiences on a generational level.

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luxtabula@reddit

I'm 81, but i took time off from University to work and didn't graduate until 2007, entering the workforce in 2008. there's a marked difference between those from my cohort that graduated in 2004-05 and myself as a result.

I always have a millennial outlook on jobs and economy because of this. I remember being called a millennial disparagingly by boomers and Gen X when I considered myself Gen X at the time. I had a hard time finding steady work, switched careers, and generally wasn't economically stable until the mid 2010s.

i never thought of Gen X as a loser generation. they seem to be fairly stable economically unless they didn't go to college. that seems to be the big divider, a college degree. it's the difference in political affiliation, how well someone is doing economically,

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Geoff-Vader@reddit

I can even afford a subscription to the Economist apparently

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closhedbb80@reddit (OP)

Some excerpts:

“We suffer”, said Seneca, “more often in imagination than in reality.” The Stoic philosopher could have been talking about the generations. Members of Gen Z, born between 1997 and 2012, say that social media ruined their childhood. Millennials, between 1981 and 1996, complain that they cannot buy a house. Baby-boomers, between 1946 and 1964, grouse that they face an uncertain retirement.

Many forget about Generation X, which is made up of those born between 1965 and 1980. Proxied by Google searches the world is less than half as interested in Gen X as it is in millennials, Gen Zers or baby-boomers. There are few podcasts or memes about Gen X. Aside from Douglas Coupland’s “Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture”, a novel published in 1991 which popularised the moniker, there are few books discussing the cohort. In Britain Gen Xers are less likely than members of any other age group to know the generation to which they belong.

********

Gen Xers do earn more after inflation than earlier generations—the continuation of a long historical trend, and one from which both millennials and Gen Zers also benefit. But their progress has been slow. A recent paper by Kevin Corinth of the American Enterprise Institute, a think-tank, and Jeff Larrimore of the Federal Reserve assesses American household incomes by generation, after accounting for taxes, government transfers and inflation. From the ages of 36 to 40 Gen Xers’ real household incomes were only 16% higher than the previous generation at the same age, the smallest improvement of any cohort.

********

Gen Xers have, to be fair, faced difficult circumstances. People’s earnings typically rise fast in their 30s and 40s, as they move into managerial roles. Unfortunately for Gen Xers, when they were in that age range labour markets were weak, following the global financial crisis of 2007-09. In 2011, for instance, the median nominal earnings of British people in their 30s rose by just 1.1%. Earnings growth in Italy, which was hit hard by the euro crisis, was just as poor. And in Canada from 2011 to 2017 the real median earnings of people aged 35 to 44 years did not grow at all.

Gen Xers have also done a poor job accumulating wealth. During the 1980s, when many boomers were in their 30s, global stockmarkets quadrupled. Millennials, now in their 30s, have so far enjoyed strong market returns. But during the 2000s, when Gen Xers were hoping to make hay, markets fell slightly. That period was a lost decade for American stocks in particular, coming after the dotcom bubble and ending with the financial crisis.

*********

Aggregate statistics capture all these trends. Jeremy Horpedahl of the University of Central Arkansas tracks average wealth by generation, using data produced by the Fed. He finds that, at 31, the millennial/Gen Z cohort has about double the wealth that the average Gen Xer had at the same age. Using survey data from the European Central Bank we find suggestive evidence of similar trends in Europe. From 2010 to 2021, millennials in the euro area tripled their nominal net worth, versus less than a doubling for Gen Xers.

The position of Gen Xers may not improve much in the years ahead. They could be the first to suffer owing to broken pension systems. America’s social-security fund is projected to be depleted by 2033—just as Gen Xers start to retire—meaning benefits will be cut by 20-25% unless Congress acts. Next time you see a quinquagenarian, at least give them a smile.

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Geoff-Vader@reddit

As a 1976er I definitely fall more into the Gen X camp. That said people my age had a very favorable housing/mortgage market in our prime home-buying years of our late-20s through early 40s. If you were willing to move regularly you could easily level-up with an extra \~$100k in your pocket each time. We didn't, but I had friends who did.

And if you were gainfully employed and willing to ignore the market by continuing to pour money into your retirement during the late-2000s you could actually get a ton of bang for you buck by buying while the market was low. Our day-to-day finances are a struggle at times with inflation right now. But retirement is one area where I actually feel pretty good about where I'm at (anything I get from social security will be gravy.) That was a personal choice though and I know not everyone was in the same position to be able to do that.

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DBE113301@reddit

I'm in the same boat with regard to retirement. I keep forgetting that I'm also entitled to social security on top of my retirement savings because I rarely log into my social serurity account, but I check out my tiaa-cref account several times a week. Just the other day, while discussing this subject with my wife, I said this very thing--"And then there's my social security earnings, which I'm not including in my retirement plan because I'm expecting it to dry up by then." But if I'm able to collect my whole social security allotment, that'll be, as you say, gravy.

I think another factor that contributes to retirement security is remaining at the same job for most (or all) of your career. I don't have the statistics in front of me, but I'd say over 80% of Americans switch jobs at least once after they start their careers. For example, my wife is a nurse, and she has worked at three different hospitals and three long-term care facilities. By the time I retire at 67, I will have been at my community college for 40 years. No one does that anymore. Well, at least, very few people do that. That kind of longevity at one place usually results in more retirement savings.

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cusmilie@reddit

I feel like the 1979-1981 x-ennials had it much harder because starting careers in much tougher job market. When they were old enough and a few years out our college and just saved enough for home down payment, then the housing bubble occurred. There was a huge shift in just those few years.

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RepresentativeRun71@reddit

People graduating from high school between 97’-99’ kinda got extra screwed. A good example are those that thought the military would be a good way forward in life because it was a time of relative peace. They’d sign a 4+4 enlistment contract with the expectation that there’s no way the reserve half would be used. Fast forward to the Global War on Terror and a lot of people our age who thought the would serve 4 years active duty and goto to school would find themselves unable to goto school until the Great Recession when their 8 years were up. That’s not including the fact that battlefield casualties affected us the most.

Then there’s those in our age group who were immediately incarcerated upon becoming adults on bullshit he said she said charges as the late 90’s early 00’s were peak mass incarceration around the United States, at least. Back then video cameras and always on GPS location tracking were exceptionally rare, so a lot of people wouldn’t have evidence to prove innocence. Then there’s the fact that when boomers were young adults nobody cared about weed, yet when we were in many places a joint meant prison time.

I could go on, but yeah those particular years were exceptionally squeezed hard.

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ejrhonda79@reddit

I'm GenX and started my career in the late 90s. I've lived through multiple market downturns. I've always felt I had a target on my back at work. I feel like I've been cursed and blessed at the same time. I've been cursed with constant feelings of I'm about to lose my job. Blessed that I can ride the wave of my experience to retirement as I have skills newer employers don't (kind of like mainframe operators when I started working). This new generation it just seems the deck is stacked against them. Living through all that I've learned no one is going to save me, I have to do everything on my own. I've also been diligent about paying off debts and saving for a rainy day when I can.

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Unable_Apartment_613@reddit

Millenial by far. The whole "Too cool to be involved" thing that Gen-X does has always bothered me.

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Santos_L_Halper_II@reddit

And as they get older, they tend to use that attitude to always side to do that thing where they say "both sides are bad" when one side is fascism and the other side isn't that.

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FestiveArtCollective@reddit

I don't know why you are getting downvoted. You are 100% correct.

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Kapo77@reddit

Xennial here.

Not all of us are like that. Certainly some are... And I stopped being friends with those folks.

I honestly think the broad brush painting encouraged by generation labeling is more harmful than helpful. If we must divide people into categories, we'd achieve the most by focusing simply on the divide between the 0.1% and the 99.9%.

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FestiveArtCollective@reddit

I am also a Xennial. Are we announcing this in every comment? I think it's assumed you are unless you say you aren't in this sub. I understand the point you are making and I agree all of our issues can be boiled down to the class war, but I also think it's important to acknowledge patterns in certain groups. There is an undeniable pattern in older and mid Gen X groups using the jaded "both sides" rhetoric while they continually vote conservative even as it becomes more and more authoritarian or refuse to vote even though our literal freedom is on the line. Boomers are even worse and I say this as someone with a liberal boomer mom who definitely doesn't fit that mold.

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Santos_L_Halper_II@reddit

The answer is fascist MAGA dipshits with hurt fee fees.

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datbackup@reddit

it’s better to say “the worst thing ever” rather than “fascism” for the sake of the mentally slow in the audience

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More-read-than-eddit@reddit

Define fascism for me. I can do it for you if you prefer.

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Matt-J-McCormack@reddit

After finding non of the career paths I actually liked wanted my history degree I did another more specific degree and graduated bang in the credit crunch. So economically, I’m dead centre millennial.

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Bluevanonthestreet@reddit

My husband is 49 so he’s more Gen X than Xennial. If he had stayed in his first career instead of going back to school at 31 we would be fine. We had bought a house and had great health insurance. Most of his friends that are the same age have had house for decades and are in solid places in their careers. One friend recently got laid off but got a massive severance and should be ok.

Instead my husband decided to get a doctorate. That was 4 years from 2007 to 2011 so absolutely awful timing. By the time he graduated all the great job opportunities that were there in 2006 when he applied to school were gone. I had to leave my tenure track job and we sold our house when we moved away for school. I struggled to find a job and ended up on unemployment for a year and half. His new career is very much on the millennial timeline and it has been a disaster. We are a dumpster fire of medical debt and school loans. We didn’t buy a house after he graduated because of the school debt and the housing market has only gotten worse.

So I think millennials definitely have it worse with the job market and career stability. Our deepest regret is believing the lie that an advanced degree will make everything better. We were told repeatedly that his job wasn’t good enough and that he needed to do more to provide better. All he needed was his bachelors at his first career and he would be 2 years from a pension if he stayed. We would have almost paid off our house that had a $900 mortgage.

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SockGnome@reddit

Oooff. I’m sorry that blew up in your face. You thought you were following the playbook and then the world torched the old rules in front of you.

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holymole1234@reddit

Definitely X. Like X, we were always told in school that we would be the first generation poorer than our parents. We were told that Japan would be ascendant, and part of the blame fell on us for being such slackers in school. Because of or upbringing, our expectations were always low.

Millennials grew up in a more optimistic and prosperous time, and they were told they could achieve anything. They thought they would grow up and be rich. Unlike us, their expectations have been shattered.

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SockGnome@reddit

We did, until 9/11 happened and the misadventures in the Middle East followed up by the 07 burst. I know every decade has issues and all generations face hardships but the American dream was supposed to be every generation that followed should continue to have access to dream rather than watch it vaporize in front of us.

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TheVelcroStrap@reddit

I’m a loser and low on the economic food chain. I am a xennial.

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Aggressive_Cellist_9@reddit

We did this to ourselves. You can get a 72 month car loan so that you can purchase $70k car and pay under a $1000 a month. Same with homes - just refinance and tap that equity but you stay in debt longer and reset the high interest you owe the bank at the beginning of the mortgage. iPhones, home alarms, WiFi, toll roads, easy access to flights and vacations, travel sports for the kids, the list goes on and on and it adds up. Majority of these items our parent’s weren’t paying for.

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mareimbrium53@reddit

My husband and I are 75 and 79, but we are from Southern California. It was one of the places that took off fast before most of the rest of the country during the housing bubble. I remember driving around with him in 97-99 and seeing how much homes cost and just knowing I was born too late and would never be able to buy one. So we were more on the millennial track in that way. Also it took me longer to graduate college because I would quit and go back to work. I graduated in 08, so even though I was older than most college grads protesting during the financial crisis, that was where I was at too.

We did eventually buy a home, but that was because his job moved us to a much much lower CoL area. When we bought our first house we were 38 and 42.

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EastTXJosh@reddit

Gen X’er for sure, but I’ve never viewed my economic condition is anything other than the product of my own choosing. I’m in my late 40’s, relatively high paying job, but no security whatsoever. I don’t have any savings. I can pay all my bills, but I have a lot, primarily student loan related.

But it’s all my own choosing.

I started law school at 38, took out a bunch of loans to make it through.

I went to law school late because I farted my way through undergrad, not knowing what I wanted to do.

There were times where I took on some revolving debt and then took on more debt to pay off debt. Again, my own choosing.

So that’s how I got here. I have as great job and I’ve had good, well paying jobs since the early 00’s, but I have no cushion or retirement because every penny goes to paying off living expenses or debt. I own it and it’s my problem to deal with and figure out.

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Chemical_Shallot_575@reddit

It’s all my own choosing.

This is how I feel for the most part. I decided to go to grad school straight from undergrad vs. going on the job market. I chose a profession with a lot of freedom and autonomy (professor) vs. a 9-5.

But I’ve always felt that this has been under my control. Having agency in my life has always been one of the most important values for me.

I still feel like I have many choices yet to make in my life. I’m not sure where that puts me, other than smack in the xennial category.

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maringue@reddit

Born in 79, but because I did a PhD, I didn't hit the job market until 2007, so career struggle wise I feel Millennial pain, but have nothing in common with them socially.

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Jets237@reddit

Oh, I'm in that U bend for sure. Nice to know it's not just me

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cmgww@reddit

I think a lot of it is timing. Most of us in this group didn’t quite have the success GenX did, but we aren’t quite as screwed as the true millennials are. At least for me, I was able to get out of college and get established before the financial crisis of 2008… I live in Indiana where it was possible to buy a house three years out of college. I started saving for retirement early, so that helped as well. Of course everyone’s situation is different but I think generally speaking we didn’t have the greatest timing but we didn’t get hose as badly as younger generations have. My biggest worry is for my kids, I’m definitely not pushing them towards college if that’s not what they want to do. We were all sold that lie, but are waking up to the fact that there are alternatives

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SignoreBanana@reddit

They're just the first generation post baby boomer syphoning of wealth. Of course they're disenchanted: the generation before them has accumulated half of the world's wealth and rather than have their own windfall, they turned out just like the rest of the generation that Boomers stole from. Their picture is the starkest because they're the oldest, but this same bullshit is headed for the rest of us too.

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SignoreBanana@reddit

https://archive.ph/1QsST

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lightningbolt1987@reddit

Gen X, as a smaller generation, also had less competition for college admission and entry jobs. Entering the white collar workforce was harder for millennials.

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greyladybast@reddit

I cheated the system and married an earlier Gen Xer who was pretty established by the time I was in my mid 20’s 😊

Without that? I’d still say the Gen X side.

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Speedy_Greyhound@reddit

I relate more to Millennial even on the older side of being a Xennial. I grew up poor and rural and went right into the workforce after graduating high school because I could not afford college and to figure out what I wanted to do with my life. I feel like I only got ahead when I made the decision to move to the city and got rid of my car, I took a lower paying job to get started but holy crap I saved so much not giving all my time and money to operating a car.

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EvenLettuce6638@reddit

I'm doing OK, but I was in the military for the GWOT.

So there was a lot of work.

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closhedbb80@reddit (OP)

I just retired from the military, which was hard, but good to me. Kept me in better physical shape than my friends from high school, and was a steady paycheck for over 20 years.

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theguineapigssong@reddit

Same. I could not find a decent job after college. Fortunately Uncle Sam is always hiring.

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Santos_L_Halper_II@reddit

Not creating an account to read the article, so what generally does it say? I know plenty of people just a few years older than me who were able to get in on the dot com/tech boom of the late 90s while I was still in high school. Even if they lost money when that bubble burst, they were able to buy homes for dirt cheap in places like Austin where property values later skyrocketed. I got out of school just in time for the Bush recession.

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closhedbb80@reddit (OP)

Some excerpts:

“We suffer”, said Seneca, “more often in imagination than in reality.” The Stoic philosopher could have been talking about the generations. Members of Gen Z, born between 1997 and 2012, say that social media ruined their childhood. Millennials, between 1981 and 1996, complain that they cannot buy a house. Baby-boomers, between 1946 and 1964, grouse that they face an uncertain retirement.

Many forget about Generation X, which is made up of those born between 1965 and 1980. Proxied by Google searches the world is less than half as interested in Gen X as it is in millennials, Gen Zers or baby-boomers. There are few podcasts or memes about Gen X. Aside from Douglas Coupland’s “Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture”, a novel published in 1991 which popularised the moniker, there are few books discussing the cohort. In Britain Gen Xers are less likely than members of any other age group to know the generation to which they belong.

********

Gen Xers do earn more after inflation than earlier generations—the continuation of a long historical trend, and one from which both millennials and Gen Zers also benefit. But their progress has been slow. A recent paper by Kevin Corinth of the American Enterprise Institute, a think-tank, and Jeff Larrimore of the Federal Reserve assesses American household incomes by generation, after accounting for taxes, government transfers and inflation. From the ages of 36 to 40 Gen Xers’ real household incomes were only 16% higher than the previous generation at the same age, the smallest improvement of any cohort.

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Gen Xers have, to be fair, faced difficult circumstances. People’s earnings typically rise fast in their 30s and 40s, as they move into managerial roles. Unfortunately for Gen Xers, when they were in that age range labour markets were weak, following the global financial crisis of 2007-09. In 2011, for instance, the median nominal earnings of British people in their 30s rose by just 1.1%. Earnings growth in Italy, which was hit hard by the euro crisis, was just as poor. And in Canada from 2011 to 2017 the real median earnings of people aged 35 to 44 years did not grow at all.

Gen Xers have also done a poor job accumulating wealth. During the 1980s, when many boomers were in their 30s, global stockmarkets quadrupled. Millennials, now in their 30s, have so far enjoyed strong market returns. But during the 2000s, when Gen Xers were hoping to make hay, markets fell slightly. That period was a lost decade for American stocks in particular, coming after the dotcom bubble and ending with the financial crisis.

*********

Aggregate statistics capture all these trends. Jeremy Horpedahl of the University of Central Arkansas tracks average wealth by generation, using data produced by the Fed. He finds that, at 31, the millennial/Gen Z cohort has about double the wealth that the average Gen Xer had at the same age. Using survey data from the European Central Bank we find suggestive evidence of similar trends in Europe. From 2010 to 2021, millennials in the euro area tripled their nominal net worth, versus less than a doubling for Gen Xers.

The position of Gen Xers may not improve much in the years ahead. They could be the first to suffer owing to broken pension systems. America’s social-security fund is projected to be depleted by 2033—just as Gen Xers start to retire—meaning benefits will be cut by 20-25% unless Congress acts. Next time you see a quinquagenarian, at least give them a smile.

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