Posted on 07/02/2014 8:13:54 AM PDT by C19fan
1. We’re poorer than our parents were at our age
Few people have been through as many economic ups and downs as the members of Generation X. Born between 1965 and 1980, any entered the workforce during the boom years of the Clinton administration—but then along came 9/11 and, a few years later, the Great Recession.
(Excerpt) Read more at finance.yahoo.com ...
Gen X’s are the Oprah generation.
No generation has seen such financial ups and downs?
The generation of the 1920’s and 1930’s might just dispute that
I listened to my grandparents and great parents talk about the Great Depression - our current troubles do not compare.
Boomers stand in our way at work…
That is the biggest problem for Gen Xer’s. I am sooooo sick of Boomers sitting in their cushy jobs while we continue to wait to go up the latter. It is an epidemic. All 7 of the Supervisors in my building are 60 and above. They are just waiting....for something....not sure what. They get a pension so what is the problem????????
I get really tired of hearing about median family income. Even Charles Murray used that stat in his book COMING APART. In that book he noted between 1970 and 2010 the bottom half the country was stagnant in earnings while the top half saw large gains.
The problem is in the article between Boomers and X is what percentage of families were single income vs. dual income? I would prefer to just know what the median full-time salary is. But that stat is almost never given. Instead it is median family income. A nice little trick to have the wife work and suddenly everyone should feel so much richer, even if the husband earns less than this father a generation earlier.
WORK MORE FOR LESS AND THINK U ARE PROSPERING. What a joke.
On the whole, I admire Gen X more than I admire the Baby Boomers. I think Gen X was handed a pretty rotten deal. I think the Baby Boom was handed a very sweet deal, and a lot of them (not all) just wasted the opportunity to build real value.
In the same situation. All 6 of our execs are Boomers. All are stuck in their ways. Don’t want to change, progress as a company. They just collect their comp from a board they put in place and is in on the whole thing.
If you look at generational cycles, you can see the madness of certain populist economic policies. “Generation X” started working in a low tax environment but now that they are in their prime earning years, they are getting hit with higher taxes. They are not the “rich” who benefited from the “Reagan/Bush” tax breaks or whatever else the Libs like to throw around. In the past, people would build their way up to their peak earning years in their 50s and early 60s and use that money for retirement. Now that money is being taken away via taxes. Then Gen X likely will be subject to retirement benefit means testing, rubbing salt into the wound.
Gen X is getting screwed, but it won’t be the last generation to ge screwed. Its becoming increasingly clear that no one in Washington has the will or desire to control spending so future generations will be screwed even worse.
I understand that sentiment and know things were bad, but in a lot of ways, things are much, much worse today. In the 30s, there were no built-in, structural government deficits that were driving the country into ruin. We didn't have trillions of debt, even when you inflate 1930s debt to get a true comparison. We now are on a runaway train that no one can stop.
With respect to overall debt and the ratio of spending to GDP, you are spot on. In that regard we are in much worse shape than in the 1930s.
I listened to my grandparents and great parents talk about the Great Depression - our current troubles do not compare.
Our future troubles might though, thanks to what we have seen in the last few years
Indeed. I am not worried as much for me, but for the generations that follow us.
It’s a little something we call experience and wisdom.
Hint: EARN a promotion. This isn’t the Republican Nomination for President, which goes to the guy whose turn it is. . .
Oh, and retirement age is heading for 72. . .
I would say that my biggest disappointment is that would be that there just has never been, at least since Reagan anything solid and dependable. Most of us really didn't appreciate Reagan during his time, but it's just been to much change from 63 to now. Very little that you can depend on.
The loss of a sense of decency and fair play. Loss of honor and loyalty.
Constant Chaos. That's what we should have been called, Generation Chaos! The generation should run from post Kennedy 63-1980.Just constant chaos. Of course this is only from my perspective. I can't think older or younger than I am.
Kiss our grey haired asses, Skippy.
“while we continue to wait to go up the latter.”
And learn to spell if you think you deserve a promotion, lol.
Jeepers. “ladder”, maybe?
I admire neither the Baby-Boomers nor the Gen-Xers. What's to admire? Neither of those two generations did anything courageous, against all odds, for anything but selfish reasons (am not knocking selfishness, just saying that it doesn't earn my admiration).
Now the Greatest Generation (encompassing those who fought and won WW II) - that's another story. Though I will concede that they were only responding to a challenge - albeit a very dire challenge - while later generations pretty got most everything dropped in their laps.
Regards,
If you can’t spell laDDer, maybe that has something to do with why you haven’t moved up it yet. I’m guessing most of the Boomers above you can.
GOOD.
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