Not to dump on gen Xers but lets not give them too much woe(Note this is going to be more a US perspective). Yeah they grew up during(and were) the crime boom of the mid century that plagued American cities. Yeah they had the oil crisis and the dot com bubble. Yeah they were old enough to buy houses during the housing bubble bursting.

Lets not also forget they were born 1965-1980. They were the tail end of being able to work up a company, they were a gen that still came into an office to still turn in applications in person and all that dated cliche stuff an older family member tells you to do if your unemployed. Theyre the ones who got alright enough paying jobs doing things like data entry while complaining about it. Theyre the ones who were the right age during emerging tech industry to do things like take a quick community college network certification course and now are making six figures as head of IT department. Theyre the ones who picked up those high paying independent reporter jobs before print media started dying off when the getting was still good. They were the ones who were at prime earning and home buying age before the market became nationwide screwed. Yes the interest rate was higher, but that meant it wasnt as attractive of an investment or business opportunity which meant prices were lower.

But again it all depends who you are. The US went through some insane times in the mid century with urban decline thanks to sprawl and white flight, factories shutting down and de-industrialization, consolidation of banks and regional franchises and other businesses(leading to layoffs and in some cases the death of said merged company all together), and multiple collapses, the crack epidemic, aids and etc. And of course its not like gen xers or even boomers died once the elder millennials turned 18, they also experience covid, and the housing bubble crashing.

I never gave up and I never will. The time will come, this aint over yet.