Turning 40 can be a fraught experience at the best of times. But spare a thought for millennials, the baby-boomer-sized generation that demographers generally define as beginning in 1981. Not only are their elders now reaching the big four-oh in the wake of a global pandemic, with a financial crisis to match the one that hit in their late 20s. But to add insult to injury, a viral Medium post this week described them as “geriatric millennials.”
That’s not the right term, of course. The older cohort already has a name, “Xennials;” the word “geriatric” usually refers to medical care of the elderly. Still, as the backlash shows, these quintessential 1980s kids are starting to feel their age. And it’s only going to get worse as the 2020s roll on, inducting millions more millennials into the fortysomething club — without the levels of home ownership and job security that previous generations enjoyed at 40. Read more…
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