The Man
Greetings. I am Matt Leichter (pronounced lie-shtr), a writer and attorney licensed in Wisconsin and New York. I received my J.D.-M.A. in law (2008) and international affairs (2009) from Marquette University and spent a semester and summer of law school at Temple University’s Tokyo campus in 2007. Before law school, I taught English at Omiya High School in Saitama, Japan, for two years. Now, I live and work in Minneapolis.
I started The Last Gen X American‘s “host site,” The Law School Tuition Bubble (LSTB), in May of 2010 when I was unemployed. My goal was to maintain my skills from both my legal and graduate educations, which seemed a better use of my time than playing Tetris while listening to garage rock all day.
You really do need to see Guitar Wolf’s zombie movie Wild Zero.
The Blog
I founded the LSTB to archive, chronicle, and analyze the failings in legal education much like Dean Baker’s indispensable Beat the Press does with economics reporting. However, in July 2015 I conceded (for the better) that the focus of my writing had expanded far beyond law school tuition. The blog had led me on a path from reforming legal education to neutralizing the role positional goods play in American society, whether education credentials or locations, which is why I am inspired by the 19th century social reformer Henry George.
As a result I realized that changing the site’s title wouldn’t be enough. Instead, I created a new blog, The Last Gen X American, and like a good industrialist merged it into the current one—a corporate inversion that celebrates the kind of income tax evasion George predicted. The new blog’s title comes from a tag I use on some off-topic posts, “Late Gen X Nostalgia,” and I decided to run with it. I am even cybersquatting lastgenxamerican.wordpress.com to symbolize land hoarding.
Now, the LSTB “hosts” The Last Gen X American to everyone’s benefit. All the links the site has received over the years work as before, and academic and editorial references to the LSTB are as valid as ever. For me, I can feel comfortable writing about topics beyond the scope of legal education without baffling casual readers.
Speaking of which, although the site is always a work in progress, I direct new readers to read the pages in the “ORIGINAL RESEARCH (UPDATED)” tab at the top of the blog. They contain my research, and unlike the blog posts they are often based on, I try to update them as new data become available or if the earlier posts contain errors. Those wishing to cite anything in The Last Gen X American should use the relevant page on the topic, if there is one, rather than a blog post.
For those interested, here’s a link to some of the music I’ve listened to in a category called, “No Bubble—Just ROCK!!”
For Tetris junkies, I recommend firstpersontetris.com, especially its “Night Mode.”
I can be reached at matt [dot] leichter [at] gmail [dot] com, but please do not contact me about using my blog for sponsored content.
The Last Gen X American 