The Extreme Generation X
My generation is a lot of things but it ain't slacking off.
The hard-working staff here at Drezner’s World has made no secret of being part of Generation X. I have written about my generational cohort while at Foreign Policy, the Washington Post, and Drezner’s World. Any why not? Generational discourse is fun in a manner similar to sports discourse: it is so much fun to explain why my generation rules while yours drools! Experts can repeat the refrain that generations are a social construct — but that does not mean they lack meaning.
This holds with particular force for Gen Xers given our longstanding status as the neglected generation. As the Pew Research Center pointed out a decade ago:
Generation X has a gripe with pulse takers, zeitgeist keepers and population counters. We keep squeezing them out of the frame….
Gen Xers also stand out in another way. In 2010 when Pew Research asked adults of all ages if they thought their own generation was unique, about six-in-ten Boomers and Millennials said yes. But only about half of Gen Xers said the same. And even among those who did, there was very little consensus about why they are distinctive.
One reason Xers have trouble defining their own generational persona could be that they’ve rarely been doted on by the media. By contrast, Baby Boomers have been a source of media fascination from the get-go (witness their name). And Millennials, the “everybody-gets-a-trophy” generation, have been the subject of endless stories about their racial diversity, their political and social liberalism, their voracious technology use, and their grim economic circumstances….
For Xers, there’s one silver lining in all this. From everything we know about them, they’re savvy, skeptical and self-reliant; they’re not into preening or pampering, and they just might not give much of a hoot what others think of them. Or whether others think of them at all.
As it turns out, however, the end of 2025 has prompted two articles with diametrically opposite headlines. The Economist explains, “Why Gen X is the real loser generation,” while the New York Times’ Amanda Fortini asks, “Is Gen X Actually the Greatest Generation?” Can these takes be reconciled?
The Economist essay confirms the relative neglect of my generation: “Proxied by Google searches the world is less than half as interested in Gen X as it is in millennials, Gen Zers or baby-boomers.” But the bulk of the article is about how Gen X has been economically disadvantaged compared to other postwar generation:
Gen Xers do earn more after inflation than earlier generations—the continuation of a long historical trend, and one from which both millennials and Gen Zers also benefit. But their progress has been slow. A recent paper by Kevin Corinth of the American Enterprise Institute, a think-tank, and Jeff Larrimore of the Federal Reserve assesses American household incomes by generation, after accounting for taxes, government transfers and inflation. From the ages of 36 to 40 Gen Xers’ real household incomes were only 16% higher than the previous generation at the same age, the smallest improvement of any cohort….
Gen Xers have, to be fair, faced difficult circumstances. People’s earnings typically rise fast in their 30s and 40s, as they move into managerial roles. Unfortunately for Gen Xers, when they were in that age range labour markets were weak, following the global financial crisis of 2007-09. In 2011, for instance, the median nominal earnings of British people in their 30s rose by just 1.1%. Earnings growth in Italy, which was hit hard by the euro crisis, was just as poor. And in Canada from 2011 to 2017 the real median earnings of people aged 35 to 44 years did not grow at all.
Gen Xers have also done a poor job accumulating wealth. During the 1980s, when many boomers were in their 30s, global stockmarkets quadrupled. Millennials, now in their 30s, have so far enjoyed strong market returns. But during the 2000s, when Gen Xers were hoping to make hay, markets fell slightly. That period was a lost decade for American stocks in particular, coming after the dotcom bubble and ending with the financial crisis….
The position of Gen Xers may not improve much in the years ahead. They could be the first to suffer owing to broken pension systems.
So… yeah, that all sucks.
So does the NYT account offer a rejoinder? Yes and no….
