As bad as things were, and are, I find it interesting that there seems to be no problem for one political party to find unlimited funds to run their campaigns. I guess it doesn't matter what happens to the middle class just so long as the "job creators" are doing well.

What did us boomers to do hurt you GenXers? Just curious, I paid my SS for 50 years, along with as an employer 15 employees that got all their kids thru school..so what is the problem?

As a 40 almost 41 year old Genxr, I works extremely hard, have a full-time job, run a small business. It is unfair that the stigmatism put on an entire generation and we are labeled as slackers, we are not all slackers. Far as I am concerned Mark whatever your last name is the boomers which ran the whitehouse and congress for the last twenty years, Clinton, Bush, and Obama esp the last two had this country in shambles and also their boomer administration. I live in a state where it is headed up by to Boomers O'malley being the gov and the state is practically broke I was much better off in 2008 than now, I feel for that person who have not had a raise in three years same goes here. The country has bypassed my generation over(thanks boomers) and passed it on to Gen Y and look where we at in the dungeon. Blame the boomers, they bought all those houses during the bubble years.

Paid off debt, got out of real estate in 2007, moved 2x, got back into real estate in a new place. Marriage in tact, now have babies & we are still ok. Finished CPA, moved some $$$ around. All told, doing better, but it's been a rough ride.

Was forced into construction when manufacturing tanked. Was forced out of construction back to manufacturing when construction tanked. Manufacturing pays what it did back then, but that money doesn't go as far.

Paper profits are just that - profits on paper, not realization events.

yes, if you judge people's net worth based on inflated Real Estate values, a lot of people lost money on paper, from 2005-2010.

Most of them, however, did not lose any real money, just inflated values.

Many of those folks BOUGHT their houses in 2002, and thus have a higher net worth then when they bought.

In other words, if you bought a house for $200,000 and it zoomed up to $500,000 in 2007 and now is worth "only" $350,000, you DID NOT LOSE ANY MONEY.

Simple concept, hard for most people to get their head around.

Glad I sold out in 2006, though. Saw it coming from a mile away - because I lived through the EXACT SAME THING in 1989.

Those who do not learn from history, are doomed to repeat it.

More Facebook stock, anyone? After all, the dot-com bubble never happened, right?

To understand Gen X, you have to understand what things were like when they were graduating high school. For starters, Generation Me raped, and I mean, RAPED everyone...hey, as long as they got theirs. They give it fancy names like outsourcing, Nafta, etc. today but Gen X was left out while everyone else was trying to grab what was left. So, opportunity was abysmal. The S&L loan scandal really helped matters a lot, too. This was before the advent of the internet as well. That dot-com bubble, before it burst, helped the NEXT (Generation Y) generation, and Generation Me cleaned up, as well. I could go on and on, but Gen X has been behind the proverbial 8 ball. Now with this current recession, the housing bubble, retirement funds getting ravaged, very few Gen X will get any sort of inheritance, either. Chances are the money, if there is any, will go to grandkids, and great grandkids (Generation Y and Millenials). Again, Gen X is screwed...simple because they were born at the wrong time in history.

So, debate all you want, but Gen X was screwed worse than any generation in modern history. You have to go back to the actual Great Depression, and prior to that, to find any group that has been screwed more.

You can feel sorry for Gen X if you want, or you can tell the grandkids and great grandkids they are just going to have to hold their horses, just like Gen X was. It's not fun being pigeonholed, but that's exactly what has happened, and will continue to happen to Gen X until someone wakes up.

And btw, this will come back to haunt society worse than you know. Imagine, one day, an entirely new generation is going to rely on Gen X to spread the wealth. However, Gen X was forgotten. Tough Luck.

Hey don't worry everyone the "Baby Boomers" are still doing OK! They took the smallest hit and will still be able to bleed the country dry before they are all gone leaving their children (us the "X" generation) and grandchildren the dept.

Devil's in the ignored details, which nobody gives a rat's arse about bothering to discover.

"Never leave a sucker with his money" -- an old poker term now taken beyond heart by politicos and wall st-- because they've figured out they can-- and get away with it, ever since they got away with the post deregulation Savings and Loan scandals - bingo- green light. They don't need the key to the vault anymore, - the vault door has been REMOVED.

Hardworking honest slob = sucker in their eyes,

(former) accumulated middle-class wealth = whole lotta suckers prime for picking.

Hold on tight- what you think you got--- You ain't keeping, cause their working on it ...

Gen-X has always gotten a raw deal, and always will. Its the nature of the system. It cannibalizes its youth. Especially any youth born between the main generations, like gen-x'ers were.

Too young to be taken seriously by the boomers, and mostly exploited by them.. And too old to fit in with the next generation. The in-between generation. Gen-x will have most of its success over the next decade or so, as the boomers go out, and before the next main wave of people take over. But for the most part, all they have had is crumbs... And its all most of them will ever have.

The truth most here don't want to hear or see is that security once thought obtainable, taught to expect for the last 50 years or so in return for hard work, following the rules- has become an illusion- a carrot to be yanked away repeatedly by control you can't even see.

The best, most cost efficient slaves are those who don't even know they are slaves- perfected.
Check one:
"I am a economic "house" slave"
"I am a economic "field" slave"

Theres a reason birth rates are down among all generations since the boomers. Infact the birth rate is almost non-existent. Boomers cannibalized the entire system for everything it was worth. Then they shipped our futures oversea's for whatever last bit of profit they could squeeze out of it all. All the while calling everyone who complained "lazy and slackers" because people didnt want to work for slave wages like they do in Malaysia. The boomers have destroyed the country, and it will likely never recover back to where it was when they took over.

Every boomer I know is spending all their money before they die, mostly on long fancy vacations.. I guess they want to make sure theres no future at all for anyone. (telling themselves they earned it im sure)

Good job boomers. Just one question, why do you hate your children so much, and your country?

Am I worst off financially? My wages have stayed the same while products cost more. In that area I'm worst off. I can't afford a new vehicle, I can't afford the fancy cell phones. I can't afford the ticket price on going to pro sports games. Some would call me poor, others would see me financially ok. I own my $50,000 home, I don't need welfare. I make my payments on time and I eat well. I have medical insurance. I can't rate myself as poor, middle class or rich. I can gage it on happiness of my life in America. In that area you can call me rich.

I developed chronic pain and other disabaling afflictions since 2005 but due to some surprisingly good investments i am much better off financially now. Get the GOP back in control and I will do even better.

Its hard to feel sorry for people who will not help themselves!!!

If a couple of hundred of you would form an investment club, and start by investing a hundred each per week, or per month, you could make all the money you need !

by week it would be 80,000 per month with that you could buy one house per month in a year you as a group would own 12 homes or apartments, with positive cash flow with a net worth of around a million dollars! it would be more than you have now, and plenty of potential to get more!!! [ by the way those homes could increase in value making you even more money]

When you get tired of whining take action and get r done!!!

Stressful money matters have hit me hard in the last three years. Was fired from job under what I considered suspicious circumstances, and we poor souls who go through this have no means of fighting back. So I wrote a fictionalized account of my experience in a book titled Judas Times Seven published by Author House. Hope some of you will check it out. To make a long story short I have reason to believe I was blacklisted although I can't prove it. These days companies can be very slick in their dealings as they know they have the law firmly on their side.

x

Most boomers conveniently forget the help they got from their parents, or the opportunity they enjoyed when they were starting out. Opportunity they helped ship to China and Malaysia.

I have considerably more in savings but I am earning less on those savings. My house is worth less but it was already paid for & is still worth more than I paid. Our pensions & Social Security were adjusted for inflation but that was a bad joke. We're really just about the same & that's not bad as we do not spend as much as we get & everything is paid for.

joejones exaggerates his security and position to try and sleep at night... sadly the bullsh*t here is so obvious- it indicates a nation of not only people accustomed to lying and being lied to but not particularly bright