Gen X will outnumber Baby Boomers in US Congress(www.ctinsider.com)

25 pointsby heresie-dabord6 hours ago3 comments

jnellis2 hours ago
It's class warfare folks. Try to ignore this "generational labeling" to keep everyone distracted on the wrong thing.
- bdhe5 minutes ago
  In one sense, the generational label is correlated with class consciousness. The Boomer generation due to good post-WW2 conditions, relatively strong labor, and lots of red scare propaganda were immune to the chasm between the capital and labor class that has only grown since the 2000s.
  Accounting for inflation, i.e., 2026 dollars, the 2000 top 10 richest individuals in the world had net worths between: - Bill Gates ($117 billion) - top - Kenneth Thompson ($31 billion) - #10
  Today, those numbers are: - Elon Musk ($830 billion) - Warren Buffet ($150 billion)
  There are at least 10 people today who are 50% richer than the richest person in 2000!
  No wonder the people whose peak earning potential was in the 90s and 00s didn't feel the chasm between the billionaires and the working class.
- toomuchtodo2 hours ago
  Show me geriatric Congresspeople besides Bernie Sanders fighting for progressive policy to help the poor and/or young. It is class warfare, but the overlap between old and wealthy is substantial.
  Congress net worth - https://capitolmarkets.org/research/congress-net-worth
  31% of Wealth Owned by People Over 70 - https://www.apolloacademy.com/31-percent-of-wealth-owned-by-... - December 7th, 2025
  Show me old political representation willing to plant trees whose shade they will never sit in.
gijsbos2 hours ago
Shocked that there's somebody in congres that's born in 1923.
- saulpw13 minutes ago
  You mean 1933 (Chuck Grassley, R-IA senator).
  BTW here's a video of him in 2026: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KhAZaWhJ7bw
  He's 93 but he's not incapacitated, unlike some other octogenarians in congress which are barely hanging on. But I can't believe he's filed to run for reelection again in 2028 (he'd be 101 at the end of that term).
biglyburrito5 hours ago
Too bad my generation (X) is shaping up to be garbage, just like the Boomers. You'd think we would have learned from the example they set, where we had it fairly good as kids & young adults but saw the Boomers hellbent on trying to keep it all for themselves as we got older. Nope, apparently a lot of us are seeing fit to try and do it to the generations behind us: Millenials, Z, & Alpha.
https://www.damemagazine.com/2023/11/02/are-gen-xers-the-new...
- breakyerself3 hours ago
  I just overheard a GenXer telling some gen z newhires at my work that social security is going to cut benefits in 2030 because 90% of immigrants are on welfare. I was in the next room so it was too awkward for me to jump into the conversation and straighten him out. It's very frustrating. Stop watching conservative media. It will rot your brain.
  - add-sub-mul-div3 hours ago
    Immigrants are like the free square in bingo to many people. Anything you don't like, you can blame on them. It makes life easier for a certain kind of person.
- talon86352 hours ago
  Calling whole generation “garbage” is not very mature and reasonable
- bluefirebrand4 hours ago
  Not too surprising I guess. Gen Xers I know paint themselves as more laid back than Boomers, and in some ways they are, but they are exactly as corporate and bureaucratic as Boomers in many other ways. Whatever rebel spirit they had decades ago seems long gone now
  They're better parents than Boomers were I think, but not really better bosses
  Obviously a generalization though
- nemomarx3 hours ago
  Didn't X get more childhood lead than anyone else? Dealt a bad hand maybe.
  - pixl972 hours ago
    Yep, I remember 69 cent leaded gas as a child. Also sitting in the back of station wagon with the window open breathing the fumes. I wonder how many IQ points I burned that way.
    1970 was peak leaded gas, but unleaded didn't overcome leaded in usage until 1980.
  - steego3 hours ago
    We did and we were statistically the most violent generation. Anecdotally, when I was a dumb kid, we honestly went looking for fights.
    What many people forget is that more GenXers wanted to beat up Kurt Cobain than to listen to his music.
    pixl972 hours ago
    >the most violent generation
    As a late GenX, gas was still leaded when I was a kid. It's usage peaked in GenX years and dropped after that until it was mostly phased out. Biggest mistake human kind ever did. (oops, GP mentioned this).
    I went to school with a bunch of these idiots. While there were a lot of intelligent and nice individuals, this was before the "don't be bullys" thing really took off. There was no shortage of uncontrolled assholes running around that thought they could get away with anything. My mom worked for booking at the jail at the time and reported back to me how many kids in the yearbook ended up incarcerated and it was a lot.
    cestith6 minutes ago
    > Biggest mistake human kind ever did.
    The same guy invented Freon and popularized chlorofluorocarbons. He was chairman and president of the American Chemical Society, a winner of the Priestly Medal, and a member of the National Academy of Sciences. He created both while working for General Motors.
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Midgley_Jr.