[The Editors' Verdict] The 'X Generation' Squeezed Between 86 and MZ, and the Issues of Fairness and the Economy

Recently, the 활약 of the MZ generation has been heating up in the political arena. While a party leader in their 30s has emerged, there are also secretaries in their 20s. It seems that the public desires this wave of change. The main generation currently leading the country is the 86 generation. They have made significant contributions to Korea's democratization. This generation experienced a growing economy, good employment opportunities, and rising asset prices. They were entering the workforce when economic growth rates were in double digits, and interest rates were close to double digits as well.

In the 1990s, Generation X began to appear. Although the term is rarely used now, it refers to those born in the 1970s and who entered university in the 1990s. They are a generation that hardly experienced democratization movements when they entered college. More specifically, they are the generation entering university from the mid-1990s onward. They were called the new generation at the time and were characterized by economic abundance and individualism. They listened to music with earphones on Walkmans, which are now rarely seen, and some children from wealthy families were referred to as the Orange Tribe. Of course, they were also the generation that studied the hardest. The college entrance system changed from the scholastic aptitude test to the College Scholastic Ability Test and the main exam. Unlike their childhood, they faced a very difficult time. They are often called the generation poorer than their parents, a squeezed generation, and a quiet generation. This generation experienced the IMF crisis, known as the foreign exchange crisis, upon graduating from university, making employment very difficult. Thanks to this crisis, Generation X is known for having a very sharp perspective on the economy. They react sensitively to the overall economic situation and economic policies and think about economic and other social phenomena either separately or combined. The word fairness is also very important to them. The terms economic and fairness may coincide in some cases but may not in others. For example, many do not consider the In-guk-gong issue to be fair because they believe it is more just to study hard and get employed fairly.

Generation X is actually closer to the MZ generation than the 86 generation. The M generation refers to those born from the early 1980s to the early 2000s and is familiar with IT technology. The Z generation, born from the mid-1990s to the early 2000s, grew up in a digital environment. Generation X was also present at the early stages of IT technology and digital transformation and shares a similar empathy with the MZ generation. They also faced similar difficulties in finding employment. Generation X, as a squeezed generation, is sometimes the parents of the MZ generation. The economic issues they feel are almost the same. Regarding economic problems such as employment, real estate, and investment, Generation X and the MZ generation inevitably share similar experiences and approaches. They share experiences of not being able to find jobs due to certain social issues, and real estate prices have already skyrocketed. While giving up on real estate, they have to live or try to earn a little more than bank interest by entering the stock market. Even if the population decreases and real estate prices return to normal, Generation X and the MZ generation might not be particularly interested. Prices have already risen so much that it is impossible to buy with earned income, and there is no compelling reason to buy. Passing inflated prices on to the next generation is concluded to be unfair. Due to these economic and social issues, the birth rate inevitably declines. If the ripple effects are not properly considered in the economic policy decision-making process, fairness cannot be achieved. Even if policies are good, they do not lead to fair outcomes.

Professor Kim Sang-bong, Department of Economics, Hansung University