Upside

8

The Unfairly Maligned Generation X

WHILE THE BABY Boomers are undoubtedly the most influential generation of the past 100 years, if not the entire history of the United States, Generation X is perhaps the most maligned generation of the past 100 years. Following in the footsteps of the massive Baby Boom generation, the Gen Xers had big shoes to fill, but it was like putting size 6 ½ feet into size 12 combat boots.

Let’s look at the math again: The Baby Boomers by birth numbers added up to 78.2 million people as of the onset of Generation X in 1965. This compares to the 69.5 million native-born Gen Xers, a population 8.7 million smaller than the Boomers preceding them. That is 11 percent smaller, which, when representative of a customer-base ...