Surviving the Workday

I’m not sure quite what’s with my funk and obsession about Generation X getting screwed, but it does seem like more folks are writing about it:

While there is considerable debate about how projected budget surpluses turned into record deficits, there is virtually no question that the U.S.’s recent reversal of fortune is unprecedented. During the prime earning years of Generation X, the deficit will likely soar beyond $3 trillion, increasing the pressure to reduce spending on social services for the elderly and raise taxes for everyone. According to The Wall Street Journal , by 2030, one of every five dollars of income-tax revenue will be sucked up by Medicare alone, while the cost of education continues to dramatically outpace inflation.

“On top of personal debt and a highly volatile job market, this is the first generation that’s going to have much higher expenses when it comes to caring for the elderly,” said the CEPR’s Ms. Boushey. “Also, there’s a drop in the fertility rate because this group is delaying childbearing, because now you need two incomes to sustain a household.” Another thing the future holds for Gen-X is a host of unknowns. “There are a lot of social experiments being conducted on this cohort,” said Ms. Boushey, “We don’t know how it’s going to play out in the long run.”