The housing crisis, the economy, and Gen. X

I may be weird (I freely admit it) but I found this article about how Gen X is, in some ways, responsible for the economic meltdown to be pretty interesting.

(Disclaimer: I'm a Gen X-er whose parents are still together, as are my husband's). (Though I did let myself in with a key starting in 5th grade)

My summation from quotes from the article:

"What this seems to mean is that the collective feeling was, basically: screw stocks, invest in a home, pay for it when you get back on your feet. This seemed like a no-brainer for phoenix-like Gen-Xers. After all, in spite of the pronouncement of a much-cited 2004 study of generational differences that Gen-X "went through its all-important, formative years as one of the least parented, least nurtured generations in U.S. history" — and that half of all Gen-X children's families split, and forty percent were latchkey kids — we'd always not only landed on our feet, but kicked some serious booty, too.........""Evidently, we were so sure of our own phoenix-like capabilities that it didn't strike us as odd that the banks should be so magically sure of us too.
In a Psychology 101 way, it kind of makes sense. One of the notorious legacies of Generation X's home-alone childhood is an abiding suspicion of authority. All this has been well-documented, i.e. we hate ass-kissing the boss, so just let us do our thing because we rock as self-starters. But when the whole house bubble started to swell, the dynamic shifted: Enter the banks, as approving parents.

They gave us a home! It's almost as if we became giddy children, finally getting the apology and consolation prize we'd always secretly hoped for: You didn't get a real home as a kid, but you worked hard, succeeded on your own steam, and now we're going to give it to you and your children. The 1980, 1990, and 2000 GSSes reflected our self-satisfaction. A whopping 66.4 percent of Generation X affirmed the statement: "People get ahead through hard work, not luck."