Generation X never had a chance. We’re finished. Some of us got famous. A few of us became right wing politicians like Ted Cruz. Some of us became legendary athletes like Ichiro Suzuki or Scott Dixon. And a few of us become billionaires like Elon Musk and Larry Page. But overall, Generation X became what it feared it would become, an overlooked generation that followed the Baby Boomers. And the Baby Boomers stayed in the workforce for too long because (and I’m being sweepingly general here) they supported economic policies that forced a majority of Boomers to work past age 65. It’s a fucked-up, late capitalist situation.

And now the purge of Generation X from the workforce is well under way. And sadly, it is legal, thanks to the weakening of US labor laws over the decades. A quick note about that: This arbitration dodge has been abused for years. Congress should restrict this corporate abuse of the right of employees, and broaden their right to seek class action judicial remedy for such outrages. Silicon valley must no longer be the "Wild West" of capitalism. It's begging for regulation, and I hope the US House can pass a bill this year to at least signal that it is time to re-regulate.

Generation X was a little smaller than the generations before and after it. But as good American consumers, they sure punched above their class. They went all-in on borrowing for college and borrowing to buy houses. They kept the US economy humming by going into deep debt. And that debt has dampened their overall wealth. We were correct. We were the first generation from the 20th century to fail to match the living standard of the generation before.

And now, as my generation nears retirement age, we realize that we had moire missed opportunities and denied chances than most other contemporary generations. In 2021, Generation X is properly having a moment. It was 30 years ago that we had some of the defining events and cultural touchstones of the generation: Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls winning their first NBA title, the arrest of Jeffrey Dahmer, the fall of the Soviet Union, Mazda winning at Le Mans, seminal albums from Massive Attack and Nirvana, The Black Album, Achtung Baby, the Gulf War and even the original Star Trek’s swan song.

It will be interesting if the Generation X call-outs and retrospectives continue in 2021. So far, the collective responses from my generation have been eyerolls, cursing and awkward silence, which is what I cherish.