Well, as one of the more responsible members of this generation (born 1978), let me take a little exception to your statement. The article points out rightly that quite a few of the factors that have screwed Gen Xers over are completely outside of our control. It’s easy to blame people for running up credit card debt, buying houses they can’t afford, not saving, etc, but even people in this generation who avoided all of that, like myself, are still probably never going to be able to retire in any kind of comfort. It doesn’t matter how you run the numbers, most people living nowadays are going to have a standard of living lower than their parents, and it doesn’t look like that will improve anytime soon.
If it is any consolation, NONE of us is likely to be able to ever retire.
And THAT is if we are lucky.