Posted on 11/21/2006 9:37:10 AM PST by shrinkermd
In 1991, Douglas Coupland wrote the best-selling novel Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture, popularizing the term, well, Generation X. Gen Xers are roughly defined as those born between 1965 and 1980. At the time of Mr. Coupland’s breakthrough, they were in their early 20’s, fresh out of college, hanging onto the bottom rung of the company ladder. Now, 15 years later, they are in their late 30’s or early 40’s, more likely to be buying up market share than using dad’s gas card at the mini-mart....
...Generation X” has come to mean more than just a specific group of post-boomers, more even than a marketing demographic—people who will go see Last Days one evening and drop $5 on a pumpkin-spice latte the next morning. It has also come to serve as a marketing model, in this post–Reality Bites world, for how all young Americans should live out their 20’s. Now we are all Generation X.
According to OnPoint Marketing and Promotions (whose clients include Ford, Microsoft and Pepsi), Gen Xers are 50 million strong, make up 17 percent of the population and spend $125 billion on consumer goods each year. Whereas Mr. Coupland’s characters removed themselves from families, schools and potential career paths to tend bar and dwell in bungalows in Palm Springs, grown-up Gen Xers retreat into gated communities, planned developments and luxury loft condominiums. They used to be obsessed with other people’s money; now, they obsess over their own.
(Excerpt) Read more at observer.com ...
When Gen Xers start winning elections, maybe we'll be able to ween the country off the government teat. Eliminate Social Security and pay for it by auctioning off massive tracts of government land.
same type of talk when "old Marines" from WWII, talk about Korean Marines that talk about Vietnam Marines, that talk about Grenada Marines...that talk about Gulf War 1 and present Marines...
Everybody thought they were bad a##es... and the younger ones were softer...
Well after seeing the video of Falluja and hearing from friends and classmates, an old WWII Sgt. Maj. got a tear in his eye and said ,"this new crop of Marines make me so damn proud I can't stand it.".... he was commenting on the bravery and just sheer integrity that they showed....
same with Gen X'ers and Baby Boomers.... it's all media hype to make you "work at jobs you hate to buy crap you don't need."....
people are people.... amen.
There is still a definite grey cieling. Most mid and higher level jobs are held by Boomers. Of course there are exceptions, but this is the broad brush truth.
Oh, goodie! Those are my favorite kind!
Xers devour magalogs and gossip rags to fill the hole left by their secular, soulless, single-parent teenage lives
Yep. That pretty much sums up my teenage life. I'm pure Gen-X. Except that I don't read gossip rags - I loathe things like MTV and People magazine.
Why would the Xers attracted to political office be any better than previous generations? Boomers have been defined by the image of a loser hippie who moved from vacuous politics in the 60's to equally vacuous narcissism in the 70's, were heartless yuppies in the 80's (while decrying the decade of greed), to ponytailed A-hole bosses in the 90's.
I guess I missed all of that having been busy trying to establish a business and career during the Carter years. I was well into my 30's before I got back up on my feet after that lovely time. I sure as hell didn't occupy my time gnashing my teeth about FDR and the New Deal or Johnson and the Great Society. So not all of us got a freeride, but had to suck it up and get on with it.
Yeah, lot's of boomers suck. I've been around them longer than any Xer. But they're not going away yet. Life's tough, and if you didn't have the mental makeup to cope with it you'd probably not be on FR.
Ping list for the discussion of the politics and social (and sometimes nostalgic) aspects that directly effects Generation Reagan / Generation-X (Those born from 1965-1981) including all the spending previous generations (i.e. The Baby Boomers) are doing that Gen-X and Y will end up paying for.
Freep mail me to be added or dropped. See my home page for details and previous articles.
Yep...in fact, we're going to get the distinct of pleasure paying the Boomers' credit card bill (and Medicare and Social Security...)
So we Xers buy an average of $2,500 on consumer goods a year? Seems awfully low. What do they call a "consumer good?" I suppose if you defined it as anything durable other than a car, maybe. Even then, the number seems very low. We are one frugal generation!
Which we can thank Baby-Boomer Pres. Bush for. LOL!
At least Gen-X didn't spit on or throw dog-crap at US soldiers when they came home from Vietnam or call them baby-killers and marginalize them from soceity.
No generation of American citizens ever treated their soldiers so cruelly. Only the Boomers (hippy-cowards).
THis is the one thing that irks me about hte Boomers, their hatred of the Military.
Because they will be the first generation to run for office after the collapse of Social Security.
Likely, but that just may produce an entirely breed of demagogue. FWIW, I just figure all the FICA I have and will pay is going to my Mom. I'm not counting on a bit of it.
i'm thinkin' of Hanoi Fonda, the idiots at Berkeley, John Kerry and his Veterans against the War, that stupid Oliver Stone film, etc.
Your right about hanging it on the whole generation though, they are too big to indict the whole generation.
That's all I remember about Vietnam as a Gen-X.
I'm glad I was a teenager under Reagan, I didn't learn to hate my country.
Thanks for the new tag line!!
8^)
I'm just glad to see somebody bitching about someone besides us boomers.
Gen Xers have plenty of hard working overachievers-- like Theo Epstein (Red Sox GM who broke The Curse by trading "face of the Red Sox" Nomar and acquiring Schilling) and Bobby Jindal (congressman and future governor and likely future VP nominee) and Lisa Madigan (current IL AG and first woman to be IL AG) and two guys that invented something called "Google" (you may have heard of it-- it's a verb now!) and now can wipe their asses with $100 bills for the rest of their lives: Larry Page and Sergey Brin. We're representing just fine.
Gen Xers have plenty of hard working overachievers-- like Theo Epstein (Red Sox GM who broke The Curse by trading "face of the Red Sox" Nomar and acquiring Schilling) and Bobby Jindal (congressman and future governor and likely future VP nominee) and Lisa Madigan (current IL AG and first woman to be IL AG) and two guys that invented something called "Google" (you may have heard of it-- it's a verb now!) and now can wipe their asses with $100 bills for the rest of their lives: Larry Page and Sergey Brin. We're representing just fine.
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