I think a lot of people missed his message. I am a late stage Boomer and I am very impressed with the productivity of Gen X’ers in the workplace. They are die hard capitalists but they want to be in smaller enterprises where merit does not take a backset to seniority.
I remember about 10 years ago reading that 20% of Gen X’ers had started their own business WHILE IN COLLEGE. They know they are going to be stuck with the entitlements bill from their parents and they bought in to the Reagan vision of growing their way out of the economic mess, and decided to put their heads down and work hard.
This is the message that comes through, that they want to be business owners and leaders, not the group that is left holding the bag when the Boomer mess hits the fan.
I'd generally agree with that..with a slight tweak.
We want to be the business creators. We want to make things and build things and sell things. The ownership and management stuff we'll do, but that's not the job. That's the stuff we put up with so we can get the job done.
Damn few of us want to be a manager in the traditional sense.