Generation X Stymied by Baby Boomers Refusing to Give Up Jobs

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2011-09-15/generation-x-stymied-by-baby-boomers-refusing-to-give-up-jobs.html

by ilamont • 15 years ago

40 64 15 years ago

duncanj• 15 years ago

"Spaulding ... is a typical member of the relatively small group called Generation X,... born between 1965 and 1978: They’re ambitious, squeezed by debt and frustrated by people who aren’t retiring on schedule."

We're ambitious? Wait, all of those other articles say we aren't ambitious, and we like to settle for less. Which is it?

jamesbkel• 15 years ago

Well, as the the article mentions, most of the "Gen X as slackers" phenomena occurred a good 15-20 years ago.

FTA

>"They long ago shed that image, Hewlett says"

jfruh4• 15 years ago

When the media first took note of Gen Xers during the early '90s recession, we were "lazy." Then during the dot-com boom we were ambitious. Funny how easy it is for a generation hitting a workforce when there aren't jobs available to look lazy, or for a generation hitting their late 20s/early 30s during a boom to look like sharp business types.

butterfi• 15 years ago

The boomers have had their own layers of identity as well. Hippies -> Yuppies -> ??

aninteger• 15 years ago

If you think GenX has it bad check out Gen Y.

jfruh4• 15 years ago

Ha ha, those darn baby boomers, refusing to give up their jobs like their parents did! The fact that their parents' retirement was in defined-benefit pensions whereas the baby boomers' retirement is in 401ks that dropped hugely in value just as they were planning to retire has nothing to do with this, obviously.

timmaah• 15 years ago

“Don’t be dependent on anything or anyone,” Neu says. “It’s safest to plan as if the government isn’t going to take care of me, companies aren’t going to take care of me.”

Doesn't appear the boomer generation figured this out. As a Gen X, I think and hope I figured this out early enough.

jfruh4• 15 years ago

But 401Ks were sold as "you taking care of yourself" because "you" controlled your retirement, not some pension fund. What's your alternative for retirement savings? The mattress?

yannis3• 15 years ago

According to my own calculations very few of the baby boomers will retire. Most of us spent our lives fighting a losing war, the inflation of the eighties, the rising housing prices. Schooling for the kids from being a very small amount of a family's life to eating a major portion of one's work efforts. Personally add one wrong move where I lost all my capital and still fighting to recover.

Most of us are still supporting our kids as they are the kids of the recessions or helping them with capital for their start-up and hey we don't want to rust in the port like an old ship. Many other of us have build Companies where these X's are currently employed.

whatusername2• 15 years ago

What part of rising house prices did Boomers have to fight? Surely that's a burden you've handballed to X/Y.

// Says a Gen Y from Australia where house prices haven't crashed yet.

timtadh• 15 years ago

Rising (and then dramatically falling) housing prices destroyed the wealth a large portion of established families. If they bought a house in say 2005, they lost money and are saddled with a huge mortgage. Even families who own their own home now have less money as people often viewed their home as a major investment.

yannis3• 15 years ago

The part that couldn't cope to save enough for a deposit due to inflation and when we managed we paid 26% (at the time living in RSA) interest plus currency instabilities. What this means is that most people's wealth was tied in their property. We also tried investing in stock markets and if you look up black Fridays and the like you will see the futility of it. To summarize at least for me the main characteristic of my financial life was that it resembled a snakes a ladders game. When you on the 98 go back to square 2! One lesson that I want to pass on, is at the end, the only worthwhile investment you can make is to invest in your children in the hope that one day they can make the world a little bit better than where you left it. This was what my father did for me by working in a sweat shop to assist me with my education and this what I am still doing. I don't divide a person's life by age but by landmarks. If my kids need support until they are 30 to stand on their feet so be it.

jpdoctor2• 15 years ago

> According to my own calculations very few of the baby boomers will retire.

It is sometimes difficult to understand that infirmities of aging are not controllable. Or put another way: Many folks are forced into retirement by someone other than their company.

pnathan• 15 years ago

It's cool, if I have to, I'll make my own job.

sp332• 15 years ago

Are you going to pay your own wages too?

learc83• 15 years ago

Yes, that's the point.

michaelchisari3• 15 years ago

The American Dream is a bit more restless than that.

bitwize• 15 years ago

I'm supposedly in that age group, and I don't give a shit when people retire or don't retire.

I only worry about my mom's retirement because her job sucks.

littlegiantcap2• 15 years ago

I hate it when people insinuate that jobs are some sort of magical commodity that there are only so many of and once they're gone that's it.

bmm6o2• 15 years ago

You would think that Business Week would know better than to perpetuate the Lump of Labor fallacy.

r00fus• 15 years ago

Exactly. If the the powers that control the shape of policy in this country (mostly wealthy & large corporations that have politicos in their pocket) cared about creating jobs as opposed to pilfering from the poor and middle class, we wouldn't be in this situation.

hernan7• 15 years ago

Yeah, what's up with that zero-sum-game malarkey?

bmm6o2• 15 years ago

On reflection, there is a difference between the Lump of Labor fallacy and a particular job opening up. If your only way to advance (say within a company) is to wait for someone above you to advance/leave/retire, then you personally will be affected by later retirement ages. It's not always easy to see alternatives to waiting, and they might come with risks you'd rather not accept.

littlegiantcap2• 15 years ago

In one company for a particular position yes, the article seemed to be insinuating some sort of general notion that jobs are a finite resource. It especially comes across because of the finger pointing at an entire generation.

lionhearted2• 15 years ago

At the end of humanity, when the Sun finally burns out, and Earth drifts into a slow freeze in the final sunset - mankind will still not have grasped economics.

geebee• 15 years ago

You got to elaborate on this. I'm going to guess that you're objecting to the way that the article seems to treat the number of jobs as a zero sum game, where boomers have to leave to "open up" one of a finite number of jobs for younger people (or anyone else, for that matter)? This was the first reaction I had to the article as well.

Thing is, it is actually debatable, or at least more nuanced than this. I lean toward the belief that relatively free markets and a robust entrepreneurialism can provide a huge amount of flexibility, to the point where discussing who "gets" a job may miss the point. Certainly young people who prefer to create startups are demonstrating that there's no need to try to climb a ladder, or at least that there are all kinds of options for creating your own job.

That said, I think there's enough friction and inertia in society and markets that a younger generation can be meaningfully stymied by an older one hanging on to the reigns.

Anyway, I'm not sure I've responded to your objection to this article - I'm really just responding to my own.

lootabooga• 15 years ago

Mankind might --"free-market" neo-liberals and Ayn Rand fans, though, never.

illumin83• 15 years ago

It's very easy for those of us in Gen X that do software development to be smug. After all, I don't know of any 65 year old Java programmers refusing to retire so that we can get a job.

In other industries where ageism is not so rampant, they might have it tougher than we do. Industries like healthcare, finance, etc, there are many positions that they are just not going to give up.

In a way, it makes me very cynical towards the older generation. They had the world given to them on a platter in the 1950s, 60s, and 70s. Instead they squandered everything they had. They started "Reaganomics" in the 1980s and since then median household income has decreased as adjusted for inflation. They started unnecessary wars, squandered our nations standing in the world, destroyed the housing market, the stock market, and the global economy. Now, when they finally retire they are going to dump themselves on us, broke, sick, and old, and expect us to take care of them with welfare payments, because they squandered all their money on McMansions and SUVs.

It's hard not to be bitter if you are Gen X and Gen Y. I know we all love our parents, but our parents generation is pretty fucked up.

bwanab• 15 years ago

There's truth in what you say and boomers in general have to take responsibility for having close to zero foresight with respect to how they've squandered their fortunes but let me counter a couple of your points. 1. The vast majority of boomers hit the job market between the middle 70's and middle 80's. This was the worst job market between the Great Depression and the Great Recession. While many things were peachy during boomer's youth, reality bit pretty hard for a really long stretch of time. 2. Reagan was largely voted in by the boomer's parent's generation. 3. And yes, under a boomer government, the housing market, stock market, global economy tanked, but I'm hard pressed to believe that these results didn't hit the boomers as hard or harder than they have hit the following generations.

Bloodwine• 15 years ago

I doubt Gen X is stymied.much. It is the younger generations that are going to suffer due to fewer employment opportunities.

christkv• 15 years ago

I don't know the details about the US but for Spain and most European countries the baby boomers are going to create dysfunctional states as they will be the majority of voters for the next couple of years and have the highest benefits accrued in history. Basically gen X/Y will be relegated to paying their pensions with higher taxes and cuts in benefits as the boomers protect their benefits.

I think we are looking at a generational war or a complete revamp of the welfare systems across the entire west.

alnayyir• 15 years ago

Gen X'ers bitching about being employed.

I couldn't write better comedy if I wanted to.

prestonbriggs• 15 years ago

I'm a boomer, have no debt, own my houses, and have a fair amount of cash. But I have no pension and don't foresee any particular income from my cash while the Fed holds interest rates at near zero. Hard to imagine retiring now.

And no matter how much money I save, it seems kinda crazy to retire before being forced to. You might say: "Things look good, time to quit!", but what'll the world look like in 5 or 10 or 20 or 40 years? I don't know, but a good income will help carry you through a lot of financial craziness.

Generation X Stymied by Baby Boomers Refusing to Give Up Jobs

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