I find the bail-out extremely depressing. Perhaps because I don’t have a ton of money invested but still feel I’ve been screwed in some fashion by Wall Street. Perhaps because I think there’s absolutely no chance there will be any money for universal health care now. Or social security.
Setting those feelings aside, the bail-out has some interesting reprecussions for the workforce mainly in that Baby Boomers will be delaying their retirement. What does that mean for Generation X? It exacerbates several trends:
- It means those upper level management (or lower level for that matter) jobs will not be open anytime soon if Baby Boomers delay retirement. And keep in mind that we knew that Baby Boomers were already delaying retirement due to debt, kids in college, caring for parents, and the need to retain health care. Now we have another big reason that Boomers can’t retire.
- It means that Generation X will again have to learn how to create their own work because the system will not work for many of them. At least it won’t work well anytime soon.
Other thoughts on generational workplace issues with the bailout and workforce?
October 7th, 2008 at 6:04 am
It seems to me that because our parents won’t have as much savings now, we’ll have to spend more of our own money taking care of them in their final years. That means we’ll have less money to spend now on our children and less money later when we need to retire. Working longer will probably make our parents’ health worse, so the costs will be higher for their final years than they would have been, and having to take care of them and then later work longer in order to reach our own retirement will also have negative effects on our own health, and therefore our children will end up having to chip in more money for our final years and delay their own eventual retirement, etc, etc, etc. . .
October 7th, 2008 at 8:06 am
Thank goodness I work for myself. I am so sick of Baby Boomers - I can’t even articulate my frustration. For all their help the world hippy crap look at the mess we are in now. UGH! An X-er that wishes they would get their idealism and crap together, because there aren’t enough of us to clean it up.
October 7th, 2008 at 10:02 am
The way it stands now, many needed reforms will have to be delayed or set aside because the money simply won’t be there. But I think this was going to transpire well before the bailout.
As for the job market. I think we in Gen X were going to have to find new solutions anyway, because the world we live in is going to have to reform itself because the old ways are growing unworkable. Change is painful and we may have to find our own way no matter what.
October 10th, 2008 at 8:23 pm
I think Boomers are going to have to do some adjusting on their end with regards to Gen X and the Millienials. Millienials are extremely comfortable with technology and are also more interested in a work-life balance than any generation before, including mine (Gen X). Will Boomers be able to change their point of view and workplace standards when it becomes obvious that they’re going to have to stay in the workforce and the Millienials are the future?