I don’t know about the 1/2 half of Gen x careers being necessarily easier. I’m older Gen x born a few years after the generally accepted start for that era.
As a teenager and a young adult I saw that the structures that the silent and boomer generations set up and relied upon weren’t going to be there for me as a senior. Pensions being removed as employment benefits. the GOP demonizing social security and Medicare and underfunding the programs. Graduated from college in a white collar depression. Went though the same multiple crisis that the millennials did, just at a later phase of my life and career development. About the only real advantage my generation had was to be the right age bracket to catch the early internet boom. But also at the right age to catch the outsourcing to China / India boom.
I guess my point is that all the signs were there all along my life of the coming disruptions. I had the right combination of luck factors. Good stable childhood home. Enough food. Decent public schools despite moving as much as I did. Parents that paid for college. No physical or mental issues that prevented me from attacking a career path. Low inflation for most of those years. I did (and do) okay. I’ve helped myself now because I was pretty pessimistic about my future years.
It’s clear to me now we need systemic changes. I had hoped COVID would smack us around enough to give momentum to pivot as a society. But nope! It seems the divisions and right wing political extremism is even worse now. I don’t know where the impetus is going to come from now. For sure it can’t come only from Gen x. We don’t have the numbers. And enough of my generation have fallen down the MAGA cult black hole.
I don’t know about the 1/2 half of Gen x careers being necessarily easier. I’m older Gen x born a few years after the generally accepted start for that era.
As a teenager and a young adult I saw that the structures that the silent and boomer generations set up and relied upon weren’t going to be there for me as a senior. Pensions being removed as employment benefits. the GOP demonizing social security and Medicare and underfunding the programs. Graduated from college in a white collar depression. Went though the same multiple crisis that the millennials did, just at a later phase of my life and career development. About the only real advantage my generation had was to be the right age bracket to catch the early internet boom. But also at the right age to catch the outsourcing to China / India boom.
I guess my point is that all the signs were there all along my life of the coming disruptions. I had the right combination of luck factors. Good stable childhood home. Enough food. Decent public schools despite moving as much as I did. Parents that paid for college. No physical or mental issues that prevented me from attacking a career path. Low inflation for most of those years. I did (and do) okay. I’ve helped myself now because I was pretty pessimistic about my future years.
It’s clear to me now we need systemic changes. I had hoped COVID would smack us around enough to give momentum to pivot as a society. But nope! It seems the divisions and right wing political extremism is even worse now. I don’t know where the impetus is going to come from now. For sure it can’t come only from Gen x. We don’t have the numbers. And enough of my generation have fallen down the MAGA cult black hole.