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Two Thirds Of Gen X Households Have Less Wealth Than Their Parents Did At The Same Age
While the endless propaganda regurgitated from every media outlet will have the average American believe (inbetween trips to collect and cash unemployment checks) that in the first quarter the economy crashed due to weather, or that millions of Americans are bailing on the labor force - oddly enough, most of those Americans are in in the 16-19 age group: retiring early, right?...
... the reality is far, far simpler: the myth of the US economic recovery is nothing more than a lie of mythic proportions.
Take Generation X: those millions of Americans born between 1960 and 1980 who in a truly recovering and thriving economy would be at the forefront of career opportunities and of wealth creation. Instead, as an extended Bloomberg profile of Gen X shows, there has hardly been a generation in worse shape than Americans between their mid-30s and mid-40s... perhaps with the exception of Gen Y, and the Millennials of course.
So propaganda aside, what is life really like for a group of people that in a parallel universe, one with a truly vibrant, growing economy, should have never been better? Sadly, "life" as it is lived and not shown on TV makes one wonder if X stands for Exterminate.
Take Vera Johnson from Seattle. Vera, one of the several Gen-Xers profiled by BBG, "is barely making do, let alone saving for retirement."
“I try to remain in the present moment and not live in fear of the future,” said Johnson, who has neither retirement savings nor a college fund for her two children. “My property is underwater, the properties around me are underwater, I’m not building equity in my home.”
The 45-year-old almost lost her home to foreclosure in 2010 after the housing-market collapse in the worst recession since World War II. She embodies the financial challenges facing America’s Generation X, those born between the mid-1960s and 1980, which lags behind other generations in building assets.
When their working years end, Gen-Xers might have to live on just half of their pre-retirement income, compared with 60 percent for the Baby Boom generation, Pew said last year.
“Generation X is at this really critical historical spot,” said Diana Elliott, a research officer in financial security and mobility at Pew, a non-profit global research and public policy organization in Washington. “They are not doing well relative to the last generation. It should give us concern as a country.”
Just how badly are they doing? Bad enough to turn around the entire concept of middle-class prosperity in America - one where every next generation should do better than the preceding one - on its head.
Only one-third of Generation X households had more wealth than their parents held at the same age, even though most earn more, The Pew Charitable Trusts found.
And there, in a nutshell, is your so-called recovery: two thirds of an entire generation - one which is in its prime working years - doing worse than their parents!
The rest is just a story of sad anecdotes confirming that not only is there no recovery in America for the average person (the average billionaire... well that's a different story entirely), but that things are, in fact, going from bad to even worse.
First, it is the overall collapse in wealth:
Gen-Xers lost about half of their wealth between 2007 and 2010, according to a Pew Economic Mobility analysis last year. Even before the housing collapse, they were having trouble keeping up with their parents in building assets, according to Pew, which defines Generation X as people born between 1966 and 1975.
“Gen-Xers are the least financially secure and the most likely to experience downward mobility in retirement,” the Pew analysis found last year.
The bursting of the dot-com bubble, which culminated in a 67 percent drop in the Nasdaq Composite Index (CCMP) from 2000 to 2002, was a particularly severe blow to Gen-Xers just starting their careers. While most didn’t directly own stocks, the economy slipped into recession and unemployment for 25- to 34-year-olds in 2003 hit its highest level in almost a decade.
Then it is the impact of record amounts of student loans pushing Gen-Xers even further down:
Student loans also slowed asset-building, said Signe-Mary McKernan, an economist at the Washington-based Urban Institute.
“Under the impact of successive booms and busts, many Xers have struggled to afford a family or keep their home, much less do better than their parents,” Neil Howe, co-author with William Strauss of books on generations in American history, said at a May 8 research symposium in St. Louis. “Then came the Great Recession, which hit Xers much harder.”
The median income for 35- to 44-year-olds dropped 9.1 percent in the three years ended in 2010, according to the Federal Reserve’s Survey of Consumer Finances. Incomes of those age 35 or less, including the youngest Gen-Xers and Millennials, fell 10.5 percent.
While incomes of 35- to 44-year-olds deteriorated less than those of younger Americans, their net worth slumped by 54 percent, the most for any age group, as the value of stock holdings and properties declined. The median net worth of those younger than 35 declined 25 percent.
Then, it was pure greed: everyone rushed during the last housing bubble to buy up McMansions and everyone knows how that ended (hint: the same way the current bubble will end). Greed that destroyed everyone who succumbed to temptation and did not get a government bailout:
The group aged 35 to 44 fared badly in part because its members had taken on debt to buy real estate at just the wrong moment, said William Emmons, senior economic adviser at the St. Louis Fed’s Center for Household Financial Stability. Those born from 1978 to 1983, straddling the line between Gen-Xers and Millennials, are at “ground zero” as the age group hurt most severely by the housing crisis, he said.
“Generation X was hit the hardest,” Emmons said. “For those families themselves, there’s limited time to make up some of those losses. For the economy overall, families that are struggling pretty hard to make up their savings aren’t spending as much, so that’s a drag.”
The median value of mortgages and home-equity loans held by 35- to 44-year-olds climbed to $131,000 in 2007 from $85,000 in 1995, based on Survey of Consumer Finances data.
Then it was tumbling real estate valuations, and the switch from owning to renting:
Property values tumbled during the real-estate crash. For 35- to 44-year-old homeowners, the median value of a primary residence dropped 21 percent to $170,000 in 2010 from $215,000 three years earlier.
As more decided to rent rather than own after the downturn, they’ve missed the subsequent rebound in home prices. About 60.7 percent of 35- to 44-year-olds owned a home in the first quarter 2014, down from 68.3 percent in the first quarter 2007, according to Census data.
Gen-Xers were also slammed by the slump in stocks. The 35-to 44-year-old age group’s median value of financial assets, including stocks and bonds, dropped 47 percent to $14,500 in 2010 from 2007. The hit to their portfolios was more than 5 percentage points bigger than for any other age group.
The value of the group’s directly held stock portfolios lost 36 percent, Fed data show. While those who stayed invested in stocks may have recouped losses as the S&P 500 Index (SPX) has rallied to new highs, only 12 percent directly held equities in 2010, compared with a 17 percent share three years earlier.
Most importantly, it is the job market: which as everyone who is actually in it, knows is nowhere near as rosy the unicorns and rainbows the BLS and the US department of truth would like to make it seem.
What’s more, limited improvement in the labor market is making it more difficult to rebuild assets. “It looks pretty bad,” said Amir Sufi, an economist at the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business. “If you don’t have income, you can’t build wealth.”
As of May, unemployment for 35- to 44-year-olds was 1.8 percentage point higher than in the same month in 2007.
The plight of Gen-Xers also means less support for the economy as they limit spending and concentrate on building up nest eggs, Emmons said.
Matthew Kraft, out of work for about a year, is watching fewer movies at the theater and dining out less. The 39-year-old former public relations manager in New York has filled out more than 110 applications to find something other than entry-level work.
“If this keeps going on for another four or five months, it’s going to start to hurt,” said Kraft, whose wife works at a hedge fund. “We have been living off of her income and dipping into our savings.”
But the scariest part will be when Gen-X starts retiring for one simple reason: nobody has anywhere near the funds they will need for provide for retirement, even if one assumes that the US welfare system is still solvent in a decade or so.
Generation X has already forfeited valuable years of interest compounding by failing to accrue savings early, said Alicia Munnell, the director of the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College and former research director at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.
“Gen-Xers are going to live longer than the current generation of retirees, and the major source of retirement income is going to be smaller,” Munnell said. After 40, if “you’ve put this off, you really have to save at a mind-boggling rate to accumulate enough to retire.”
As for Johnson, a mother of a 17-year-old daughter and a 12-year-old son, she’s more concerned about day-to-day living than about preparing for retirement.
That's ok Mrs. Johnson, you are in the same boat as all "developed" nations: the only concern is how to keep the lie of solvency going day-to-day rather than addressing, let alone tackling, the reality of the terminal dilemma: a systemic collapse, or hyperinflation, that is just beyond the horizon.
And now, buy stawks because... the recovery!
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That bothered me too. I started trying to think outside the box, and my approach certainly isn't for everybody. My perspective on that topic is this; the government, your government, is an adversarial force.
I want to be as small a target as possible. When I got divorced, I used that opportunity to downsize on everything I could possibly downsize. After watching Argentina, Hungary, Iceland, Cyprus, etc. The writing on the wall is clear. If you can't physically stand in front of something and protect it, it isn't yours to begin with. Bank accounts, retirement accounts, etc. They tell you it's yours. You want to believe it's yours. And you'll go about your merry way until they confiscate "your" stuff, either directly through a "one time contribution" or indirectly through inflation and taxation.
Our generation was sold a lie. There was no way to continue to live the lifestyle our parent's had. No way to keep up with the what the marketers told us "we" wanted. Demographics wouldn't, couldn't allow it.
Now, the BRIC countries are being sold the same lie, with far less resources, and no access to cheap energy. Sucks to be them.
I figure that I'll work until I can no longer work. Retirement was just a beautiful idea, reserved for the lucky generations before me. My great grandpa was still working his fields well into his 80's. I'm not owed a retirement, and I'm not selfish enough to demand one. I'll be as useful as I can, for as long as I can, and try to be as self-sufficient as I can the whole while.
#1 KEEP FIT
#2 hold some phyz
#3 hope for the best!
Get prepared mentally. I have heard that the people who do the worst are middle aged men who had been somewhat successful before the world came crashing down around them such as in the collapse of the Soviet Union. They had something to lose and did not have the heart or energy left to rebuild.
Lower your expectations, be thankful for your health and maybe you can help others through the transition when the time comes.
Get out of debt and stay that way
Generation "Austerity" from here on out.
Sure is a lot of huffing and puffing but this data is from 2010.........
Time does not make facts irrelevant.
“If you don’t have income, you can’t build wealth.”
If you DO have income, but the government knows about it, you can't build wealth either.
My leaky bullion-carrying boat was the greatest wealth preservation tool I ever owned.
The ebb and flow of empires.
I've made it abundantly clear to my daughters that they will almost assuredly not have the same standard of living that their grandparents had, and probably not even the standard of living I have. I don't want them to be under the illusion that "everything" is fine. Normalcy bias is a real bitch to behold on an individual basis, but to watch an entire culture with normalcy bias is Kafkaesque.
The "golden" generation was the generation right before the Baby Boomers IMHO, or perhaps the one directly before. They had humble beginnings, and witnessed a financial/industrial/scientific boom that may never be replicated.
My grandpa had his first job at 8-years old as a mule-skinner. In his lifetime, he was witness to the greatest leap in standard of living ever witnessed. It's incredible to think about really.
Sad to think that all that momentum was squandered for the sake of political expediency and corruption.
Good post Jethro. I have been meaning to have a talk with my children and you provide some good talking points.
And yet every illegal Gen-X'er I know of has a full time job.
You can draw your own conclusions.
I guess legal GEN-X'ers are going to have to learn to compete with the illegal Gen-X'ers.
Or we can just sit around in a circle jerk and chant: "Get rid of the illegals" and hope that fixes everything.
Obviously, the government has a plan for the gen'xers and gen Y. Its about all that ammo they have been hoarding.
Baby Boomers have been controlling the narrative in their favor for a very long time. Because of their population size they have much more influential sway then the GenX crew and have tilted/consumed much of the benefits as they passed through.
The problem with the GenXers is that they mostly conceded to not having influence and checked out or swallowed the worst social habits they were being fed. Too many of them are tattoo'd, dope smoking hangers with no goals and no plan to better themselves. Future generations will recognize that if everyone in your group will not lift their own weight, it makes your job that much harder.
Full Disclosure - The Dude is a GenXer
Yes, but let's be honest, that which cannot be maintained, won't be, period.
copied from above;
"The short answer is simple...
There simply is no political or monetary solution to scarcity. Like my grandfather, my generation will see another world war (the only eventual outcome/solution)."
I know many boomers who are " ..tattoo'd, dope smoking hangers .." living off their rapings of other generations.
Nothing wrong with smoking a little weed.
I disagree, why smoke a little, when you can smoke a lot? The one commodity the gov has not regulated and taxed into scarcity. Also old people need to believe the narrative they are fed, they worked hard and the have-nots only have themselves to blame. Hehe, at least while having themselves to blame the have-nots have something right?
Thanks for proving my point.....
...or you could own up and look for ways to fix/improve the system instead of loosing yourself in the haze, waiting for the world to turn.
Spot the insidious lie:
Generation X has already forfeited valuable years of interest compounding by failing to accrue savings early, said Alicia Munnell, the director of the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College and former research director at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.
Guess someone forgot to inform the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston what their ZIRP4EVA policies have done to interest-bearing accounts lately. (Jackasses.)
What kind of moron puts money in an 'interest bearing' account? Seriously, 'interest' is so old-fashioned, and counter-productive to a business. Zero interest policy punishes the people who think they're entitled to a big return for taking no risk. High returns on "interest-bearing" savings means that risk-taking in an economy is punished. A high equity risk premium is very healthy.
FAIL, real capital is derived from savings (the result of productive work/labor) not counterfeiting.
Jesus H. Christ you're fucking clueless . I should allow my local TBTF bank to lever up my deposits and gamble with no expectation of return, i.e. interest for the simple fact that they are engaging in some form of Fed backed carry trade or MBS Ponzi scheme? SMFH
Interest bearing accounts aren't supposed to give a "big return for taking no risk". They are supposed to give you a big return for lending something of VALUE. Somethig the US dollar apparently doesn't have anymore.
Why would a 5% per annum CD punish RISK TAKING?
When future generations can't afford to buy the shit off of previous generations (houses, stocks, etc.) and values start plummeting, look for the Fed to print like a motherfucker.
I'm tired of these articles bemoaning the fact that "generations" of population are worse off than their predecessors.
The fact of the matter is that the post-WWII boom years in the US were an aberration, not the norm.
The Dick Van Dyke dream of a middle-class nuclear family living a pretty decent life was made possible because (1) Europe and its industry and its demographics lay completely in ruins; (2) Oil was really cheap.
And at the same time that postwar middle class America was enjoying the fruits of these circumstances, the OSS and CIA were off and running at full steam, laying the foundation for the twisted neo-con cryptofascist Or-Huxleyian world we have now.
Don't compare the results of the depression era people with the boomers. The boomers are horrible.
Even top grads can't find jobs, especially in fields like engineering. Firms don't even bother giving the "courtesy of a response" to domestic candidates before they hire foreigners.
This is the lie of the debt and credit economy. Gen X bought into the whole borrow your way into prosperity lie. Borrowing to buy an overpriced education, house, stock, car and becoming a debt slave for life was the reality.
I bough a house at 50% of the going rate. A shithole.I fixed it all up. I am Gen X.
Says the goon who took out an imaginary backed subprime teaser rate loan to purchase $750,000 homes that are really worth $100,000 + property taxes that you couldn't afford.
A $20,000 student loan isn't that bad. At least real education will allow people to earn more to buy a house at a fair price. OMG! More youngens passing business calc! Whatever will the threatened boomer status quo ever do?
Tell me, please.
Where do you go to get a REAL education?
Go to school and all you get is schooled.
Education is a different thing altogether.
Well said. Combatsnoopy is obviously one of those logistically lucky techie turds, sprouting his prepaid caltech education while subconsciously fostering the inevitable inferiority complex that comes with a life immersed in robots.
All a part of the plan; sponsored by the TBTF Banks, Wall Street, the FED, and .gov.
A poor generation is a compliant generation.
Once the fuckers have stolen it all, and no one has anything to lose, things should get interesting.
+1.....only I would use the word "Conditioned"
And the training continues................I was at the tail of the Boomers....1958. When i graduated high school there were few jobs, so I joined the Millitary......$500. a month and after room and board, taxes I got maybe $60. Then I finally quit, 6 1/2 years later to find out the training was not accepted on the street, the jobs again vanished. After a struggle, I have paided off my house, two children educated and no debt. Now, I don't have a company pension, but saved..............Now it seems like the Government want that as well. Taxes....as a Canadian, the first gst. tax I paid was on my Mothers Casket..........Big Governments steal to give to others...........I am waiting for the revolt.....Boomers should not be the scapecoat here.........There are those who are to blame though.........some are LAZY others are stupid and many others are corrupt. Seems like this article is to wind up the herd for a cull? Know your target, Boomers will. Funny thing is.....Those who bailed in the Banks with tax payers money have caused the problems, they control the Army and have proved that they will use force if they want. The real money is with these born to privledge, I could have enjoyed life with mega money but alas......my bodies broken up from WORK and when I retire from work I don't feel I stole any of my savings.......I started with little opportunity and broke.......you can as well. Good Luck even though the deck is stacked against you just don't join the American Mercinary army to enrich those in power anymore. Let the Rich fight for their money over Oil.
Retirement?! Gen X? What about that chart in regards to the little fellas? These young people are missing out on some of the most important situations of a young life. The skills, mindset, independence, leant in those first real world experiences are crucial. I'm not concerned about the Gen X'ers they should be able to figure it out, and understand that at the very least you have the access to the information required to make a go of this.
I know that's how I'm planning my retirement, not with a huge nest egg, but with a good piece of land containing a healthy natural ecosystem. A solid understanding of your local environment, economic and otherwise will also be beneficial IMO.
One place I would not want to be hunkering down is the city. Something about that large anonymous gathering of people makes for some funky rationals.
Gen X didn't get enough credit. Gen X is the first generation that agressively went after tech credentials because they had the ability to. Not the boomers. Boomers passed deregulation.
Gen X is the first generation that fully thrived in the most multicultural environment in the history of the world.
The Boomers were LUCKY to have Reagan as president. Reagan's tax cuts drew American money back into the US where they had nothing better to do with it than buy business backed stocks- which resulted in the greatest employment/population growth in the history of the world. It was those darn tax cuts, not the Laffer Curve.
The tech sector was built on the backs of Gen X. The boomers put up a lot of red tape and with their voting majority used the government to create assets to rob people in need of shelter.
Draft Dodging entitled coked out stoner boomers (Clinton, Bush and Obama) all started their own wars and sent Gen X, Y and Millinials to multiple tours of THREE wars for a SURVIVAL JOB.
American baby Boomer trash elected politicians and their financed lobbyists allowed 9/11 to happen.
Boomers tossed all of these chemicals at their bodies without quality control- which gave heavy lobbying big pharma the bright idea to lobby for medicare monies. Which the boomers are abusing.
According to Compliance Technology (the HUD database has a record of mortgage borrowers, their age/race/gender/occupation/primaryorsecondarypropertystatus, nature of the loans, net worth, etc. on all mortgage borrowers)---Compliance Technologies researched this and elaborated on how the majority of counterfeit subprime backed ARM teaser rate mortgage borrowers were upper middle class caucasian baby boomers flipping property, creating an unregulated market to rob people in need of shelter.
Boomer trash elected politicians and their financed lobbyists purposely ruined the Multilateral Investment Agreement between the US and China circa 1995, causing the US public sector to have a monopoly of power over the private one since foreign entities only buy up US Treasuries instead of business backed Ventures, stocks and other investments that greatly stimulated the job market and economy during the Reagan Administration.
The boomer trash thanked the Reagan administration for prosperity by having Hanoi Jane grossie play Nancy Reagan in The Butler.
The country was ruined by baby boomers.
"Boomers passed deregulation." - yes, and stole the wealth generated in large part by the innovation of the genXers...
just follow the money...
same as it ever was.
I'm technically on the cusp between Gen X and Y. I KNOW some of the talent that got into tech and I KNOW that the boomers are threatened.
It's nobody's fault but their own when they did nothing but drugs and dicked around all day when Gen X and the international community were going after creds in programming and software engineering (that's not easy stuff, Boomer English majors will never get it).
First time I did any computing was 1969.
Punch cards.
Did a programming course or two in mid 80s.
Been on-line since 1992.
Still do a bit of web design
Have been known to build computers - as recently as last year.
Did a reasonable amount of substances.
I'm a boomer.
Never felt threatened.
The brushes being used here are too broad.
The one thing that politics have taught us, there is always someone to blame, except ourselves.
Three felonies a day and asset forfeiture....exactly how is that deregulation?
"Only one-third of Generation X households had more wealth than their parents held at the same age, even though most earn more . . ."
Why do these stupid motherfuckers keep telling us this kind of bullshit? Why don't they use some form of wealth and earnings measurement other than phony nominal dollars as their units?
These Gen Xers do NOT earn more, after taxes and REAL inflation, than their parents did. No fucking way!
It doesn't matter. The typical American baby boomer voting and fiscal majority don't get basic math. Why else do you think their upper middle class "educated" caucasians would flip houses with loans secured with imaginary assets in the first place? Because they're smart? NO.
Hopefully the international community will be smart enough to understand it.
I've got some bad news for you....
Re: Hopefully the international community will be smart enough to understand it.
Did you just arrive on the flight from Mars?
Did the parents spend $200 + on cable / internet service every month?? Did they buy the lastest HDTV & Laptop every year or two??, did the parents eat out every night?? did the parents live in a 3000 square foot home with granite countertops & a 50inch flat screen TV in every room??
It doesn't matter if they earn 'more', if all the money is every month on stuff to impress others such as a BMW 5 series and designer clothes from Nordstrom & Bloomingdales then of course they will have either no or negative wealth... Of course the rationalization is that the 'home' is worth more
Dont forget the debt ZH and of course unfunded liabilities add those figures in and you got generational rape.
thank the clinton's... bush#41 dynasty
where's jeb? we know where lard-ass is selling her mouth?!?
but, it's the toxic 'chelsea mix', that worries 'generation (XYZ & U) forlorn`ification'?
It's on purpose!
Today on Max Kaiser he references a study that shows americans have less empathy than ever before. He and his guest, David Graeber go on to discuss BEING IN DEBT, under the gun, close to the edge turns us all into bankers, grifters looking for what we can turn into money, and most can't and won't. We adopt the beliefs of the banker without the benefit. In Graeber's book, reviewed on Amazon, he makes a great argument for how absolutely brain-washed we are, blaming the borrower, favoring the institution assuming the legitimacy of the debt without question and instutionalizing the eternal payback as in the IMF and poor countries for example. As a result we have no feelings to spare as we, personally, are under the gun.
These disgrundled debt slaves will be the button pushers in the war against the former middle class.
Ah the dream, Family, Swimming pool, kids, vans, endless vaca to Disney land, all those pictures now worthless. POS generation and beeeding more and more.
I understand you can retire pretty good in Belize for $2k per month. I'm thinking about building an expat commune down there. Xers welcome.
That's the situation and costs Now.
How friendly the people are and the costs 5 - 10 years from now?
As a boomer myself, and reading the posts above, it's fun to see the boomers becoming "those people" in the eyes of the non-boomers.
To the non-boomers... the "those people" concept is why much of what you are witnessing now, exists.
Survival of the fittest, bitchez!!! HAHAHAHAHA!!!
It's another divide and conquer, it really is.
The would have 4 or 5 age groups fighting each other if they could.
Look, the reality is shown in the movies 'Animal House 1978' And 'PCU 1994'.
Both are really good films to illucidate what the reality is.
In Animal House, (That generation) Greg Marmalard and his 'strata' of friends in real life, went on to become the Guys that are running things like Banks, corporations, etc. Houses in the Hamptons etc.
While the majority, the Boons, and Hovers and Flounders are the average boomer. They went to work and paid their bills as the average guy did.
The Movie 'PCU' about twenty years later same story.
The class of people represented by David Spade' character were the next generation of the Greg Marmalard's social strata. They are also the ones filling up the ranks of JPM and Goldman.
Nothing has changed.
It's NOT a generation thing(ie Boomers vs Gen X, etc), That ain't the problem here.
If you weren't Born privileged, Most likely statistically you Won't die privileged.
back when mortage rates were double digits i used to poke fun at the older crowd who were able to finance their homes at 2-4%. they purchased their homes at 5 digit prices. who could have forseen that the housing values would crater so the illusion of wealth in home ownership was vaporized? how can we describe the wealth of these parents? their house? gone. their health care? gone. the net present value of their retirement savings? gone. i worry for all these parental-units that are holding a bag of what they think is wealth and promises from politicians they have voted for all their lives.
would it not be better to be a Gen-X'er and know you are screwed?
I'm a Gen X'er.
We need to raise an army and divide the country. I think we should start in Michigan do to the fresh water pools.
Now we’re going to pay for all those teenage illegals porking down in the FEMA camps.
If we don't sacrifice and take our part of the country now, reform (national bankruptcy) will come in our retirement years and we’ll surely sacrifice then.
I believe we're going to witness the pendulum swing against the 'bigger is better' mantra we've seen in government and business. The US is surely separating. I predict it will occur much as the Soviet Union broke apart.
I was born in 1961. a Hailine Boomer, and I'm much poorer than my parents. Worked hard, and watched as cost of living made mincemeat of a $60,000 job. I guess choosing rape in San francisco is where my mistake lay....... I should have moved to Jersey......
"Most Earn More"
Who are they kidding? Salaries and household income have been going down since about the first X'r was born. Government has been raping the inflation numbers at least since 1991. And if they got more education and did earn nominally more, they were much more heavily taxed especially in blue states.
Finally whatever extra they might have had is tied up one way or another in real estate, either under water or washed away, or trying to make gigundo payments just to stay in town.
When I got laid off, I started 2 very different businesses. I moved, leaving NYC for a state with MUCH lower taxes and MUCH less expensive land/housing. I bought arable land with lots of water underneath it. My retired Dad came to live with us, and is helpful in 1 of the businesses. Frugality is key, and creatively bending cost curves. My businesses are struggling in terms of revenue growth, but both are surviving/growing because I've kept overhead and related expenses low. Once I dreamed of hitting financial home runs. I chuckle at how hard I'm grinding now to leg a bunt into a single. I'm looking forward to my wife returning to part time work as our child nears 2 years old. 2 kids? Forgeddaboutit. We are very unlikely to do as well financially as our parents. In the time of our diaspora, I can live with the opportunity of being known as the generation that kept the faith, gripped the wheel, and survived the storm.
Its good you left NYC.. If you are over 30, earning less than $150,000 and not a child of the top 1% life becomes annoying & even hellish living in the NYC metropolitan area... Most of these hipsters & other transplants in the 'other boros' outside of Manhattan are just trustafarians & children of the top 1% which allow them to spend $3,000 on a one bedroom walk up apartment in Brooklyn or the south bronx now
Its complicated obligations always are. I believe that the dead have rights: to rest in peace, being one.
If you have a generation that diggs up all the graves, and burns them as cord wood, what are the rights of the generations that come after.
Who are we, and who do we wish are children to be: savage or civil?
That choice is near.
As a Gen-X'er I am surprised at the irresponsible people of our generation. Thankful to be the one third.
Just because someone is "responsible", doesn't mean they "make" it. Plenty of good people on the scrap heap. Plenty of dead beats in influential positions.
The average Xer over 40 who is unemployed is facing a heck of a lot of career headwinds. The resume gap created by long-term unemployment is the excuse of choice for not hiring. It's litigation avoidance. You are now a discrimination threat because of you've reached the age 40. Companies want young dumb and full of cummers to avoid litigation that comes when others want to cash in for years of devotion and compentency. I can't think of a better reason to work for yourself than tolerate that sorry bullshit.
What I find interesting is that all these trades that everyone is talking about not having enough 'qualified workers' such as electricians & plumbers are closed off to say people in their 40s because (pick any or all these excuses from such hiring managers ) suddenly they 'don't have experience', will want too much money, won't 'fit in', will 'get bored' but the 19 year old punk who barely graduated high school is able to get hired for these trades and probably will get union level pay in a few years... companies want young, pretty & dumb with that jock, frat boy or sorority girl look ex... the ideal candidate looks like one of Mitt Romneys kids
No doubt. Dirty hands professions are looked down upon in our culture but this is where opportunity is. If I were 20 again and could make $200k/year welding in the oil patch I do it in a second and study for a degree at night. What an excellent start in life. But our culture shames people for making these career choices. Look at all the idiots with useless BA degrees loaded down with debt because of parental superiority complexes. What a waste.
looked down upon ? or is it that they would hire some young 20 year old punk but someone 35-40 who is actually educated won't be considreed because he 'isn't the right fit' or 'doesn't have experience'....
I've heard many are no longer putting their birth date on applications and also not indicating year graduated from school to get in the door and look them in the eye.
Only 2.3rds?!? Do the boomers know at this rate they are going to be the special sauce in Soylent Green come 2020?
A) Gen X is people born between 1965 -1980. 1960 is not Gen X but the 'evil boomers' that the late Gen X & Gen Y despise even though they are quick to take to take any handouts and know how to sponge off their parents to pay credit card bills & auto loans
B) Gen X & Gen Y can really be blended into one generation socially since 35 is the new 22 and many 30 somethings hangout with 20 somethings and both 'generations' seem to know how to waste money on crap --- tattoos, dance pop music, paying $2,000 on a Friday night for bottle service at the trendy lounges, $300 True religion jeans...
Tell me something, where does personal responsibility come into play??? Both Gen X & Gen Y can be described as hyper consumers and extremely materialistic and get hard ons for trendy labels -- ex. Underarmour, Nike, North Face etc.. If you are spending $500 a week on labels and make even $100,000 a year and are paying $3,000 + a month in rent or mortgage, the numbers 'don't work'...
I think Strauss & Howe's definition of Gen X (1960-80) has proven to be the best.
There is a definite and significant difference in cultural characteristics between the kids of 1970's and the kids born in the 1980's.
As time goes on, the generational differences will matter less than the class differences. One of the reasons why age generations are so noticeable in post-WWII North America is that there was a relatively high level of social equality. That made the generation differences more noticeable. Now that our society is polarizing along classic Marxist lines, the class differences will become much more important than generation differences.
A) Gen X is people born between 1965 -1980. 1960 is not Gen X but the 'evil boomers' that the late Gen X & Gen Y despise even though they are quick to take to take any handouts and know how to sponge off their parents to pay credit card bills & auto loans
B) Gen X & Gen Y can really be blended into one generation socially since 35 is the new 22 and many 30 somethings hangout with 20 somethings and both 'generations' seem to know how to waste money on crap --- tattoos, dance pop music, paying $2,000 on a Friday night for bottle service at the trendy lounges, $300 True religion jeans...
Tell me something, where does personal responsibility come into play??? Both Gen X & Gen Y can be described as hyper consumers and extremely materialistic and get hard ons for trendy labels -- ex. Underarmour, Nike, North Face etc.. If you are spending $500 a week on labels and make even $100,000 a year and are paying $3,000 + a month in rent or mortgage, the numbers 'don't work'...
they spend all their money on crap like granite countertops, 'doggie day care', $5.00 Starbucks Lattes, $100 + gym memberships, cleaning & lawn services and other day to day crap.... Trendy but not condusive to retirement especially when you have to run to the mall several times a week for yet another $100 + shirt or $298 pair of jeans
You need to investigate further. A lot of us wouldn't buy that crap but we have even less money again, so we don't buy the good stuff that we actually want.
I've seen a lot of good people in dead-beat jobs. Something else is missing from the equation.
Re "cleaning and lawn services" :
When both parents are working 60+ hours per week, they haven't got time for that shit. Plus, you may wish to attend a time-management seminar or two. "Find out what you love. Find out what you are good at. Then pay everyone else to do everything else. Specialization is the key to prosperity."
I don't pay people to do my lawn. I never could afford a lawn in the first place.
And yet you celebrate the "Reagan Revolution"?
I'm just learning to live with less.... less consumer junk, less food and even "friends".
Less pussy?
TIL Gen X are crybabies
Oh, wait. I am a Gen Xer
Boomers brought us drugs, disco, divorce, diabetes & debauchery.
Praise them if that is your predilection.
Meanwhile, the rest of us will clean up the explosive diarrhea they shat all over the place.
I must have a really good financial advisor or I'm a genius compared to my peer group. I'm not even a super-high earner. I have a seemingly worthless art school degree. I started saving early in my 20s. stayed in the market with diversified, low cost index funds when everyone bailed (both times), and invested some $$ when the market was around 8k the last time. I've got a wad of savings, a modest mid-70s era house with land in a booming metro area bedroom community. Married with 2 kids. Wife stays home. I'm living the in the 1950s or something and my peers are double income and fucked and don't know their head from their ass.
I have no sympathy for wankers that have desirable degrees that make good money and are broke. All I can say to them is get a clue and grow the fuck up.
Gen-X put Obama in the WH. How'd that work out for them??? Tee, Hee, Hee...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Barack_Obama_presidential_campaign...
Looks like a bunch of boomers to me.
The reason for the vitriol from GEN-X to Baby Boomers is this:
- We HEARD about Silent Generation and Greatest Generation excesses and vices.
- We SAW Baby Boomer vices first hand.
Try being a 5-year old latch-key kid whose first daily duty was to get younger siblings out of bed, and fed, and then to take the beating for waking up Mom, who passed out naked on the couch after her latest lover, and was hung over.
- We see today the wealthiest country in the history of the world going down in flames, and only a tiny, tiny percentage of our own number are among those at the helm.
You can say we are unjustified for our point of view all you like.
But no matter how loudly you scream your innocence and indignation, your works scream drown you out.
Sorry, boomers. A lot of you are nice folk. But, this country has never been in so much trouble, all at once.
And yes, with the understanding that the wrecking of America was begun a generation before your births', it is not fair to give you all the blame.
But it was on your watch that the wheels came off, in so many ways, again and again. And did you do the right thing? Or did (and do you continue) to do the thing for RIGHT NOW?
We all know the answer to that question. The answer is in the boomer's many monicres, the "ME" generation, the "Peter Pan" Generation, the "Aquarius" generation.
We all know the answer.
Many warm, pleasant, hardworking boomers. But on balance, a huge preference for self-indulgence, and short-term thinking and short-term solutions.
Welcome to the Long Run. This is where denials end.
My grandparents were all born just after the income tax was instituted and just before WWI started. They hated FDR even though they were not wealthy themselves. They hated LBJ. My paternal grandmother claimed that it all started to fall apart when the Beatles played on the Ed Sullivan Show. But it all started before then. My parents were not boomers and either am I, but to blame them for the "mess" is ridiculous.
Some of you posting here I am sure have seen or are seeing a therapist. More of you should.
I have been taking Prozac (now up to 80MG a day) for over 2 years along with a stabilizer Neurontin 600MG tablets 5 times a day.. does that count????
I have been taking Prozac (now up to 80MG a day) for over 2 years along with a stabilizer Neurontin 600MG tablets 5 times a day.. does that count????
..but they have better phones
Yeah, and it's because of President CVNT, the democrats, the republicans and this entire fucking POS government in this country. Karma's a bitch you assholes.
Behind parents' generation in wealth AND not a chance of receiving a dime in social security.
Better learn to "five-and-dime" it, Gen X....