This has nothing to do with contemptous media portrayals of "Gen X." I wish some other label had stuck. Douglas Coupland, the writer who coined the term, wishes there was some other label. It's the label that has stuck, though, and we need to call ourselves something because we have collective interests at stake. So "Gen X" it is.

So far as demographics, go, I like the parameters of Geoffrey T. Holtz, for whom Gen X = people born between 1960 and 1980, or Strauss & Howe's dates of 1961 to 1981.

First, a Key Principle: All Gen X Issues
Have An Economic Aspect

A> Gen X is not a minor variation on something all young people go through. It is rooted in historically specific economic conditions and relations. Just to name a few of these: the shift to a service economy, rising educational costs, and a retreat from government spending on almost every group except the elderly. (1)

B> Unless major reform occurs w/r/t entitlements for the elderly, it is a relationship of economic subordination that will not go away as Gen X young people age and (hopefully) gain more economic security. (2)

C> Like any socioeconomic relationship, there are individual exceptions (including this author), but once you consider larger demographics, accumulations and transfers of wealth, and so forth, privileges and disadvantages become clear. As with women and ethnic minorities, pointing out that "so and so has done okay," simply ducks the larger issues.

Copyright 1986, 1987 by DC Comics Inc. See the disclaimer.

 

1> As a descriptive label, Gen X is as much cultural as it is strictly demographic, something you can flesh out with questions about musical taste, attitudes about the 60s, sense of foreboding, etc. This is especially true if the notion of "generation" is primarily a marketing strategy, and thus tied to market share and purchasing power. The key questions here might be A> to what extent does mass media and commodity culture acknowledge your experiences as significant? And B> are your experiences represented as significant themselves, or are they evaluated by the yardstick of another’s experience, pale reflections of another’s (mis)remembered Valhalla?

The All-Important Bullet 2

2> As a label, Gen X tends to work best with middle-class WhAnglos (White Anglos) who didn’t expect to do as well as their parents. As Lalo Lopez puts it w/r/t to angry young WhAnglos in the late 80s & early 90s: "Mad at what? Mad because they’re not rich? Or is it that they can’t exploit others as successfully as the generation before them? . . . . they don’t seem to realize that they’re angry young white people in an angry brown world."

Lopez’s essay is a major port of departure for ideas I’ll develop about WhAnglos & becoming-minor. For a male WhAnglo Xer like myself, Lopez’s heads-up was sadly necessary but immensely helpful. For example, w/r/t being subordinate to people less qualified than yourself, Lopez writes "That’s how I feel every day—it’s called the Glass Ceiling." This was just great w/r/t potential collation politics, once I got past a white lefty sheepish stage about my own recurring cluelessness.

Given Lopez’s points, perhaps one useful way to think about GenX WhAnglos is as a traditional majority who found themselves experiencing aspects traditional minorities deal with all the time. Specifically, an economic downturn that limited their economic prospects, and small demographic numbers that resulted in their being evaluated by an alien yardstick (WhAnglo Boomers’ self-conceptions).

3> Lest I become too constrictive about the WhAnglo angle. Professor Alma Rosa Alvarez’s conversations with me about common generational issues indicate that this is not exclusively a WhAnglo experience. Since Watchmen features mostly characters, and because I’m paranoid about generalizing my own experiences as being representative of others’ situations, in my analysis I’m going to stick with WhAnglos.

4> George Jr., whom my left students view in apocalyptic terms (especially those who voted for Nader), and potentially bad economic times may perhaps bring their economic and political experiences closer to my own at their age, though I hope not.

Warren Hedges, SOU, 9/8/01

Copyright 1986, 1987 by DC Comics Inc. See the disclaimer.

Postscript

Obviously the World Trade Center attack and whatever comes after will be a major and perhaps seminal event for Millennials who come after X. Though it's difficult to think about, I see some important differences between this and Gen Xers' experiences.

Left Gen Xers grew up expecting destruction brought upon us by our own leaders, who seemed to lead unopposed by either our conservative peers or formerly left Boomers. But it was a disaster that, miraculously for many of us who struggled to prevent it, didn't happen.

Many Millennials, if I'm to believe my students, grew up feeling much safer. Yet they're confronting a disaster which did happen. Where things go from there, I'm not sure. It's far too soon to tell. But it seems to me important to note the differences between dreading something that didn't happen and not dreading something which has.

9/20/01

backward on this thread	forward on this thread

 

Notes

Take me to the Bibliography

1. See "The Generation that Raised Itself," part one (9-99) of Holtz's book. Neil Howe & Bill Strauss's 1993 book "13th Gen: Abort, Retry, Ignore, Fail" is also good, especially chapters 13 "Room to Move as a Fry Cook," and 19 "The Choices are Ugly and Few."

Apparently they gave up trying to name it 13th, because their latest book goes along with the Gen X label. Here's a relevant quote on 13th Gen (born 1961-81) from Strauss & Howe's 1991 book, "Generations":

During the 13er [Gen xer] childhood, America has substantially shifted the federal fiscal burden from the old to the young. Since 1972, older generations have deferred paying for some $2 trillion in current consumption through additional US Treasury debt--a policy five times more expensive (in lifetime interest costs) for the average 15-year old than the average 65-year old. (327)

Take me back.
2. Ken Dychtwald pretty much sums it up with the subtitle to his book, "Age Power : How The 21st Century Will Be Ruled By The New Old." A representative quote: "Due largely to elders' increasing political clout, since 1965 total federal spending on Americans over 65 has increased from 16 percent of the budget to 33 percent. comprising just 13 percent of the population, eleders receive four times as much federal money as those under 18, who comprise 26 percent. Consider that for every $1 of tax revenues that Washington spends on seniors, it devotes only 11 cents to each child, it's obvious that elders have seized control of society's purse strings." (212)

But also see Peterson (former US Secretary of Commerce), MacManus,Steuerle, Lamm, Samulson, Holtz, Smith, and just about anything on "saving social security for the baby boom" (not for those who may end up paying for to do so). Chapter 5 of "The Future of Capitalism," by MIT economist Lester Thurow, is a good, if scary, introduction to what he correctly identifies as an intergenerational transfer of wealth. A pertinent quote: : "Now there are fewer poor people among the elderly than any other group in the population." (98) and "the elderly have a per capita income a whopping 67 percent above that of the population as a whole" (98).

Take me back to the top.

Dychtwald, Ken. Age Power : How The 21st Century Will Be Ruled By The New Old. New York : Putnam, 1999.

Holtz, Geoffrey T. Welcome to the Jungle: The Why Behind "Generation X." New York: St. Martin's, 1995.

Howe, Neil, and William Strauss. Generations: The History of America’s Future, 1584 to 2069. New York: William Morrow, 1991.

Howe, Neil, and Bill Strauss. 13th Gen: Abort, Retry, Ignore, Fail? New York: Vintage-Random, 1993.

Howe, Neil, and William Strauss. Millennials Rising: The Next Great Generation. New York: Vintage-Random, 2000.

Lamm, Heather. "Retirement in the 21st century." Vital Speeches of the Day 62.16 (June 1, 1996): 509-11.

Neuborne, Ellen and Kathleen Kerwin. "Generation Y." Business Week. February 15, 1999. 81-88.

MacManus, Susan A. Young v. Old: Generational Combat in the 21st Century. New York: Westview-HarperCollins 1996.

Peterson, Peter G. Will America Grow Up Before It Grows Old? New York: Random House, 1996.

Samuelson, Robert J. "Darling, It'll All Be Yours--Soon." Newsweek. 135.14 (April 4, 2000): 66-69.

Steuerle, C. Eugene And Jon M. Bakija. Retooling Social Security For The 21st Century : Right And Wrong Approaches To Reform. Washington, D.C. : Urban Institute Press, 1994.

Smith, J. Walker and Ann Clurman. Rocking The Ages : The Yankelovich Report On Generational Marketing. New York, NY : HarperBusiness, 1997.

Thau, Richard D., And Jay S. Heflin, Eds. Generations Apart : Xers Vs. Boomers Vs. The Elderly. Amherst, N.Y. : Prometheus Books, 1997.

Thurow, Lester C. The Future Of Capitalism : How Today's Economic Forces Shape Tomorrow's World. New York : W. Morrow, 1996.