Gen X is turning 60 — why the 'MTV generation' is still relying on parents for money, support
I ran into this article the other day. Sheesh reading this made me angry. Can you imagine the impact on the psyche of an entire generation that they never got to be full adults with enough money to cover their needs even up to age 60? Hey before I was no contact, I had to go begging for help with car related matters to mine. Everyone who has read this blog knows how poor I was compared to my mother. Imagine the shame that never ends. Seriously by 40 if you can't pay your own bills, hope is lost for a better future. The degree didn't work out, the health already failed, the career faltered.
My goodness, look at the percentages! Nearly one-third of Gen X?
"Generation X is officially turning 60, and the eldest members of the “MTV Generation” are creeping ever closer to their own retirement years.
Yet, if you look at the latest economic data, a striking number of these 46- to 60-year-olds are still tied to their parents’ financial apron strings.
According to Northwestern Mutual’s 2026 Planning & Progress Study, a stunning 33% of Gen Xers confess to being financially dependent on Mom and Dad, with 22% of them believing they will never achieve true financial independence."
The sociologists have let us down. No one has studied to the extent that it should have been studied how all generations after the boomers have had their economic lives massively worsen. Imagine being 50 years old with your hand-out to your pissed off Mom, that you are such a "loser"! That was my life up to age 44, but I walked.
Do you all remember when I wrote the article, "Gen X is Dying Young"? I wrote that in 2015. My predictions about the worse people of the boomer generation never letting go, did come true, with our doddering and stroking out 80 and 90 year olds holding a death grip on Congress and everything else.
They are dying younger because less money means less resources and means less health.
Imagine the never ending shame, the depression, the knowing you were seen as a failure by your family and parents and it never changed even as you got old yourself!
I don't agree with the realtors quoted in the article. Gen X is broke. The majority of Gen X people I know have never bought a home. Some have, don't get me wrong but a sizeable number never could afford it.
Many of us know financial stability is a pipe dream. I already have accepted as the second silent Great Depression is now rolling, that is something that is long gone for many of us.
Ted Rall got it right: Generation X Faces a Bleak, Impoverished Old Age
Gen X has the Largest Wealth Gap of Any Generation
Be careful of the source, on that first article, because the NY Post represents what I call the "Archie Bunker with an app" crowd. In other words, they cater to some pretty regressive attitudes, so I'm not surprised that they'd pour boiling oil on Gen X. I too would question the overall drift of what those realtors are saying, because results are bound to greatly vary -- by class, and by region.
ReplyDeleteI'd voice one caveat about the Ted Rall article -- as f#cked up as our gerontocracy undoubtedly is, and the collateral damage it's done, I do think that we need to avoid spiraling down into mindless intergenerational warfare -- I agree with the one commenter who suggests rallying youth support behind the programs by emphasizing the common good aspects behind them ("We would have to reframe the arguments to get them on our side by emphasizing socialistic ideas behind the programs"). Also, more energy needs to be directed into promoting one of the more obvious fixes that could be used to strengthen the program -- namely, lifting the payroll tax cap, which stands at $184,500.
The current system acts as a regressive tax, with low- and middle-income earners having to pay the full 12.4% on their earnings, while those at the top pay nothing at all in tax, which is what makes FICA "a four-letter word" (as the 13th Gen book said, if I recall correctly).
There's also the oft-floated "donut hole" compromise, which keep the current cap at 184,500, lift for incomes up to 400,000, and then re-apply it, which I personally find a bit convoluted -- far simpler, I'd say, to go with the other option, though all these approaches will remain pipe dreams for the moment, until we finally pull the plug on the Trump plutocracy. --Mr. Peep
Yeah Gen X may be next but we are so poor what are they going to say though I have seen some pissed off Gen Zs lump us in with the boomers like we have money. I'm sure a few Gen X got okay jobs.
DeleteRemember a lot of boomers are becoming poor now, I try to put some caveats on the generational stuff. I agree they may want generations fighting each other as the billionaires rip us all off, though Gen X is truly poorer then boomers [in a generalized by statistics way] I saw some boomers shouting on one website, "it wasn't that great we only made 2.00 an hour while everything cost "less", but we remember how much more expendable income people had when we were young.
Yes with the Ted Rall stuff we have to be careful. One thing billionaires could get the pissed off young to blame the oldsters and cancel Social Security, they pit every demographic against the other!
Agree with you about the Social Security cap! It needs raised!!