Meet the Typical American Gen Xer: Debt, Net Worth, Income

Their life experiences, which include beginning careers during the dot-com boom and living through three recessions, have made the typical Xer risk-averse and cynical.

As Insider Xer Rebecca Knight wrote, "In the way that millennials love avocado toast and boomers are self-absorbed, Gen X is a group for whom cynicism is a love language."

Xers, she said, were raised in the shadow of an economic downturn and in the era of "stranger danger." They've also been shaped by three recessions: the dot-com bubble, the financial crisis, and the pandemic.

"They had their own brand of trauma, whether it be the recession or being latchkey kids who were left in front of the television or the fact that they were unable to get the kinds of jobs and career paths that their parents enjoyed because the economy had run out of steam," Larry Samuel, the founder of Age Friendly Consulting, told Knight.

Gen X's trademark cynicism and risk aversion has deep roots, Jason Dorsey, who runs the Center for Generational Kinetics, a research firm in Austin, Texas, also told Knight.

"Gen X came of age when all kinds of commitments and promises were broken," he said. "Gen X saw their parents get laid off and all kinds of benefits get cut. Gen X is skeptical of whether or not Social Security will provide for their needs — or if it will even exist by the time they retire. There's a lot going on with this generation because of what they experienced growing up."

The culture of Gen X took cynicism mainstream as early as the late 1980s, when Winona Ryder deconstructed the high-school movie in "Heathers." In the 1990s, Gen X culture glorified an attitude of skepticism, as with Richard Linklater's film "Slacker," and the alternative-rock boom led by Nirvana and other Seattle-based bands.

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