I'm 42, at the very limit of the definition of Gen-X, I guess.
I personally make a little less than I did in 2000, and that's in straight dollars for dollar comparisons. In terms of buying power, my Dad, who worked as a butcher for his father's small butcher shop bought a home, a vacation home and was able to take a vacation with us regularly. While I live what I think is a very comfortable life, I'm driving a 1997 Jeep with 175,000 miles on it and an increasingly problematic transmission, and my wife's vehicle is 10 years old as well as starting to develop Old Car problems. There are household repairs we put off because of the cost, and there are things we don't buy or do because we can't afford it. And I make a decent living, I know people who work harder than me and make much less.

That said, there are five things I see that have reduced the buying power of people today.

First, is of course, housing. Forget inflation adjusted dollars and all that stuff. Look at in in terms of years of income to buy a house. As a rule, when your pricing to housing ratio gets above 1:4 (that is you're spending more than 1/4 of your take-home on housing), you're not really able to afford the home you're in. When my father bought the house we lived it, the ratio for us was about 1/6 - I say this because my dad always reminded me that he'd have to work for six years with no other bills to pay off the house.

Next is the cost of healthcare. I have a $5,600 deductible on a plan that costs me about $400 a month. That means in any give year, I'm out at least $4,800 in premiums, and up to $5,600 in additional medical bills before my insurance company pays out a dime. That's $10,400 a year in medical costs that are my responsibility. My Dad has 100% medical coverage through the meatcutters union. Of course, the actual price of healthcare has declined, we're just using so much more of it these days...

Third is taxes. Although my marginal tax rate is lower today, my total tax burden is larger. Sales tax, excise tax, telecommunications taxes - all of these add up to a heavier tax burden than my Dad had.

Fourth is energy costs. Energy, in the form mostly of liquid fuels, is currently at an all time high. This translates into higher costs to get to and from work. I'm a nutcase commuter, so my examples are extreme, but my annual commutation costs (gas, bus fare & subway fare) exceeds $5,000. We heat with Wood, which is almost free (in dollars, not time), but I still use a gas-powered log splitter for the larger projects, so there's some liquid fuels costs.

Fifth is the new "must haves" in telecommunications. Virtually everyone reading this is paying for internet access, and I'll venture to guess that you carry at least one cell phone. We have 4 operational cell phones now (or a variety of reasons we use 3x Tracfones, 1x Treo) and I'm adding a Verizon Wireless network card tomorrow ($80 a month). All told, I'll be spending well over $300 a month on telecommunications and those are costs my Dad never had.

I could add in the costs of other subscriptions like cable TV or satellite TV radio, but we don't have any form of subscription electronic media here, or even a TV for that matter, so that's not a factor for our expenses, but if you're paying $80 a month for TV, that's a cost your dad didn't have.

So all in all, less money, more things to spend it on, and things that were free (like healthcare) now cost you money.

Welcome to the Future Shock Toffler never predicted.