4 ms·

Gen X was standing on the same rug as you guys when it got pulled out. Take a look around next time you're in WalMart or McDonalds. All those 40ish looking peop

Gen X was standing on the same rug as you guys when it got pulled out. Take a look around next time you're in WalMart or McDonalds. All those 40ish looking people that look weirdly out of place in their uniform shirt? Yeah, that's us since the boomers nuked domestic manufacturing and construction wages made a run for the bottom. Don't even get me started on retirement. sigh

justinjlynn 10y ago
Well, I didn't say that Gen X got nothing at all. We all got hurt in some way by the GFC. Of course to generalise about an entire generation people is egregiously pointless. At the same time, simply due to the luck of timing, it feels as though Gen X had more of a chance to do something about it. However, they did not and in fact they had much more of an opportunity to take advantage of the selfish and short-sighted policies perpetrated during the previous era. They, at the very least, had the potential to come out of it with at least some decent sum of assets. Meanwhile, here we are with a completely upside down economy left to us in tatters and we've no inheritance to help us. Of course, millennials feel shortchanged in a very real sense, we were the hardest hit, we have had little to no chance to do anything about it and we'll likely be known as the impoverished generation -- much like the lost generation, except this time with economic warfare as the driver.
- pbhjpbhj 10y ago
  >Of course to generalise about an entire generation people is egregiously pointless. // You consider statistics to be pointless? What do you propose instead?
- SyneRyder 10y ago
  "We all got hurt in some way by the GFC." Worth noting that the GFC was one of the best times in history to buy stocks. I'd be in a terrible situation right now if it wasn't for the GFC: I bought some brand name stocks (supermarkets, mining, banking) at huge discounts. One of them more than tripled in price in 5 years and is still throwing off a 20% cash dividend every year. Don't give up. You never know when a Black Swan event might swing things in a way that benefits you. And Millennials have so much online access to education about stock market trading, E-Trade, online banking, and new things like crowdfunding that just weren't around before. It's not easy for Millennials, but there's a lot of amazing opportunities that other generations would be jealous of.
  - kspaans 10y ago
    Not to mention many indexes completely recovered within a year or two of the GFC.
- touristtam 10y ago
  > it feels as though Gen X had more of a chance to do something about it But they didn't had that chance to begin with. The predictions were as bad back then than they are now; back in the 80s the collapse of the market economy was predicted for shortly after 2000, and in the 90s, it was pushed back to as early as 2020 and as late as 2040. Last I have checked western countries are still on course to default by the mid to late 21st century. I find this generation view short sighted and you should look at the different strate of the society instead to see who in that generation has managed to get ahead of the game and get a confortable situation for themselves. Those are the one that conformed to the rules and custom of the previous generation. I am sorry to say this, but if you want to see a change you will have to get out of your way and make that change happens.
  - pessimizer 10y ago
    In the US, the collapse has been held off by maintaining a vast trade deficit and inflating asset bubbles. Government borrowing isn't the problem in the US, it's national borrowing. According to traditional trade theory, developed economies should be consistently running trade surpluses. Thanks, Reagan. Allowing the dollar to weaken, and digging out the entrenched interests in US health care would fix everything. It's just that a weak dollar and lower health care spend is a problem for the rich, and the petty bourgeoisie have thus far mindlessly supported them. (Because racists.) http://www.tradingeconomics.com/united-states/balance-of-trade http://www.tradingeconomics.com/united-states/balance-of-tra...
trhway 10y ago
>All those 40ish looking people that look weirdly out of place in their uniform shirt? Yeah, that's us since the boomers nuked domestic manufacturing and construction wages made a run for the bottom. technology and economy do change. The changes can't be stopped. The question is how you adapt to them. When many people suddenly lost their job as soldiers 70 years ago there was in particular GI bill created to help manage the transition. What was done to manage the specific transition of domestic manufacturing jobs disappearing and overall transition to globalization and "information" economy? Nothing. Education and safety net are the main missing pieces which would support the transition. Yet, the country during last several decades has been either electing or seriously consider to elect a Republican :) Just think about couple trillions buried in the sands of Iraq and Afghanistan - that was basically total squandering of the humongous peace benefit of ending Cold War. It could have been a humongous improvement in education and medical systems and country infrastructure which would help tremendously to the transitioning GenX-ers as well as to the graduating and entering workforce Millenials... yet the country in 2000 decided that "lower taxes" outweigh it all. Well, you get what you pay for. Blaming all those issues onto the third world countries for using the chance to improve their life just a bit, to stop being hungry every day - well, lets say that blaming is pointless whining at best and pretty heartless at least.
- ap22213 10y ago
  Or, as they say, hindsight is 20/20. Concepts like exponential change and globalization certainly weren't mainstream in the 80s when I was a child. In fact, I'd bet that most adults at the time still worked at the same company, in the same town, for most of their adult life. Companies at the time were still providing pensions and health care and middle class salaries, and employees (owners, bosses, and workers) generally all still worked in the same place. It is silly in hindsight, yes. We were quite naive. But, I think you're being overly harsh (or maybe I'm just too sensitive). Many of us assumed that changes would happen linearly, not exponentially, and that we would live out our lives differently, but mostly similar to our parents. Hopefully, those under 30 today have been better trained to be highly adaptive. However, at a certain point, even the most well-trained Human will reach an adaptive limit.
  - 10y ago
fauigerzigerk 10y ago
I think there is two classes of "us". Those who inherit significant wealth from the boomers and those who don't.

justinjlynn 10y ago

Well, I didn't say that Gen X got nothing at all. We all got hurt in some way by the GFC. Of course to generalise about an entire generation people is egregiously pointless. At the same time, simply due to the luck of timing, it feels as though Gen X had more of a chance to do something about it. However, they did not and in fact they had much more of an opportunity to take advantage of the selfish and short-sighted policies perpetrated during the previous era. They, at the very least, had the potential to come out of it with at least some decent sum of assets. Meanwhile, here we are with a completely upside down economy left to us in tatters and we've no inheritance to help us. Of course, millennials feel shortchanged in a very real sense, we were the hardest hit, we have had little to no chance to do anything about it and we'll likely be known as the impoverished generation -- much like the lost generation, except this time with economic warfare as the driver.

pbhjpbhj 10y ago
>Of course to generalise about an entire generation people is egregiously pointless. // You consider statistics to be pointless? What do you propose instead?
SyneRyder 10y ago
"We all got hurt in some way by the GFC." Worth noting that the GFC was one of the best times in history to buy stocks. I'd be in a terrible situation right now if it wasn't for the GFC: I bought some brand name stocks (supermarkets, mining, banking) at huge discounts. One of them more than tripled in price in 5 years and is still throwing off a 20% cash dividend every year. Don't give up. You never know when a Black Swan event might swing things in a way that benefits you. And Millennials have so much online access to education about stock market trading, E-Trade, online banking, and new things like crowdfunding that just weren't around before. It's not easy for Millennials, but there's a lot of amazing opportunities that other generations would be jealous of.
- kspaans 10y ago
  Not to mention many indexes completely recovered within a year or two of the GFC.
touristtam 10y ago
> it feels as though Gen X had more of a chance to do something about it But they didn't had that chance to begin with. The predictions were as bad back then than they are now; back in the 80s the collapse of the market economy was predicted for shortly after 2000, and in the 90s, it was pushed back to as early as 2020 and as late as 2040. Last I have checked western countries are still on course to default by the mid to late 21st century. I find this generation view short sighted and you should look at the different strate of the society instead to see who in that generation has managed to get ahead of the game and get a confortable situation for themselves. Those are the one that conformed to the rules and custom of the previous generation. I am sorry to say this, but if you want to see a change you will have to get out of your way and make that change happens.
- pessimizer 10y ago
  In the US, the collapse has been held off by maintaining a vast trade deficit and inflating asset bubbles. Government borrowing isn't the problem in the US, it's national borrowing. According to traditional trade theory, developed economies should be consistently running trade surpluses. Thanks, Reagan. Allowing the dollar to weaken, and digging out the entrenched interests in US health care would fix everything. It's just that a weak dollar and lower health care spend is a problem for the rich, and the petty bourgeoisie have thus far mindlessly supported them. (Because racists.) http://www.tradingeconomics.com/united-states/balance-of-trade http://www.tradingeconomics.com/united-states/balance-of-tra...

trhway 10y ago

>All those 40ish looking people that look weirdly out of place in their uniform shirt? Yeah, that's us since the boomers nuked domestic manufacturing and construction wages made a run for the bottom. technology and economy do change. The changes can't be stopped. The question is how you adapt to them. When many people suddenly lost their job as soldiers 70 years ago there was in particular GI bill created to help manage the transition. What was done to manage the specific transition of domestic manufacturing jobs disappearing and overall transition to globalization and "information" economy? Nothing. Education and safety net are the main missing pieces which would support the transition. Yet, the country during last several decades has been either electing or seriously consider to elect a Republican :) Just think about couple trillions buried in the sands of Iraq and Afghanistan - that was basically total squandering of the humongous peace benefit of ending Cold War. It could have been a humongous improvement in education and medical systems and country infrastructure which would help tremendously to the transitioning GenX-ers as well as to the graduating and entering workforce Millenials... yet the country in 2000 decided that "lower taxes" outweigh it all. Well, you get what you pay for. Blaming all those issues onto the third world countries for using the chance to improve their life just a bit, to stop being hungry every day - well, lets say that blaming is pointless whining at best and pretty heartless at least.

ap22213 10y ago
Or, as they say, hindsight is 20/20. Concepts like exponential change and globalization certainly weren't mainstream in the 80s when I was a child. In fact, I'd bet that most adults at the time still worked at the same company, in the same town, for most of their adult life. Companies at the time were still providing pensions and health care and middle class salaries, and employees (owners, bosses, and workers) generally all still worked in the same place. It is silly in hindsight, yes. We were quite naive. But, I think you're being overly harsh (or maybe I'm just too sensitive). Many of us assumed that changes would happen linearly, not exponentially, and that we would live out our lives differently, but mostly similar to our parents. Hopefully, those under 30 today have been better trained to be highly adaptive. However, at a certain point, even the most well-trained Human will reach an adaptive limit.
- 10y ago

fauigerzigerk 10y ago

I think there is two classes of "us". Those who inherit significant wealth from the boomers and those who don't.