US wealth gap between young and old is widest ever
By HOPE YEN Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) -- The wealth gap between younger and older Americans has stretched to the widest on record, worsened by a prolonged economic downturn that has wiped out job opportunities for young adults and saddled them with housing and college debt.
The typical U.S. household headed by a person age 65 or older has a net worth 47 times greater than a household headed by someone under 35, according to an analysis of census data released Monday.
While people typically accumulate assets as they age, this wealth gap is now more than double what it was in 2005 and nearly five times the 10-to-1 disparity a quarter-century ago, after adjusting for inflation.
The analysis by the Pew Research Center reflects the impact of the economic downturn, which has hit young adults particularly hard. More are pursuing college or advanced degrees, taking on debt as they wait for the job market to recover. Others are struggling to pay mortgage costs on homes now worth less than when they were bought in the housing boom.
The report, coming out before the Nov. 23 deadline for a special congressional committee to propose $1.2 trillion in budget cuts over 10 years, casts a spotlight on a government safety net that has buoyed older Americans on Social Security and Medicare amid wider cuts to education and other programs, including cash assistance for poor families. Complaints about wealth inequality, high unemployment and student debt also have been front and center at Occupy Wall Street protests around the country.
"It makes us wonder whether the extraordinary amount of resources we spend on retirees and their health care should be at least partially reallocated to those who are hurting worse than them," said Harry Holzer, a labor economist and public policy professor at Georgetown University who called the magnitude of the wealth gap "striking."
The median net worth of households headed by someone 65 or older was $170,494. That is 42 percent more than in 1984, when the Census Bureau first began measuring wealth broken down by age. The median net worth for the younger-age households was $3,662, down by 68 percent from a quarter-century ago, according to the Pew analysis.
Net worth includes the value of a person's home, possessions and savings accumulated over the years, including stocks, bank accounts, real estate, cars, boats or other property, minus any debt such as mortgages, college loans and credit card bills. Older Americans tend to hold more net worth because they are more likely to have paid off their mortgages and built up more savings from salary, stocks and other investments over time. The median is the midpoint, and thus refers to a typical household.
The 47-to-1 wealth gap between old and young is believed by demographers to be the highest ever, even predating government records.
In all, 37 percent of younger-age households have a net worth of zero or less, nearly double the share in 1984. But among households headed by a person 65 or older, the percentage in that category has been largely unchanged at 8 percent.
While the wealth gap has been widening gradually due to delayed marriage and increases in single parenting among young adults, the housing bust and recession have made it significantly worse.
For young adults, the main asset is their home. Their housing wealth dropped 31 percent from 1984, the result of increased debt and falling home values. In contrast, Americans 65 or older were more likely to have bought homes long before the housing boom and thus saw a 57 percent gain in housing wealth even after the bust.
Older Americans are staying in jobs longer, while young adults now face the highest unemployment since World War II. As a result, the median income of older-age households since 1967 has grown at four times the rate of those headed by the under-35 age group.
Social Security benefits account for 55 percent of the annual income for older-age households, unchanged since 1984. The retirement benefits, which are indexed for inflation, have been a consistent source of income even as safety-net benefits for other groups such as low-income students have failed to keep up with rising costs or begun to fray. The congressional supercommittee that is proposing budget cuts has been reviewing whether to trim college aid programs, such as by restricting eligibility or charging students interest on loans while they are still in school.
The Boomers with all their wealth, are entering their "golden years" In the next 20-30 years, their wealth will be passed on to their kids. The biggest reason for such a disparity in wealth is the Bush Economic Meltdown. Had the Clinton prosperity continued, the last 10 years would have been successful ones for the younger generation, instead of them being unemployed, or under employed.
The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness. John Kenneth Galbraith
How about the fact the kids of today want everything they desire now and charge everything they want and are in debt up to their eye lids. They have houses that are twice as big as what the older folks live in and a huge mortgage to go with it along with very expensive cars, boats, 4 wheelers, and every electronic device known to man, all on credit. They live from paycheck to paycheck and when they lose a job, take a cut in pay, or get a divorce they end up filing for bankruptcy to get out of debt and lose everything. The older generation bought things when they had the cash to pay for what they needed and always had some money put away in case of an emergency, big difference in life styles.
I know several couples in their mid 20's... None fit your description of 'young people'. A hubby I know is working full time and his wife part time while she is in Law School. They pay their own way, live a modest lifestyle and struggle to pay for daycare and college bills. Not all young people are this industrious, but neither were all in their parents generation.
This generation will eventually overcome the present economic mess this country is in, and will be stronger because of it.
The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness. John Kenneth Galbraith
You are right about this country being in a mess and it's going to take everybody working together and making sacrifices to dig us out of the mess we're in.
Maybe they can go murder grandma and grandpa and TAKE what they want. Besides, they have a 5 bedroom house with three baths they are upside down on, they NEED the money!
"While Foreign Terrorists were plotting to murder and maim using homemade bombs in Boston, Democrap officials in Washington DC, Albany and here were busy watching ME and other law abiding American Citizens who are gun owners and taxpayers, in an effort to blame the nation's lack of security on US so that they could have a political scapegoat."
I know several couples in their mid 20's... None fit your description of 'young people'. A hubby I know is working full time and his wife part time while she is in Law School. They pay their own way, live a modest lifestyle and struggle to pay for daycare and college bills. Not all young people are this industrious, but neither were all in their parents generation.
This generation will eventually overcome the present economic mess this country is in, and will be stronger because of it.
these would be the grandkids of the boomers.....the boomers F'ED their own offspring with current economic system that was started in the 70's....go ahead and look for blame....I would too....
...you are a product of your environment, your environment is a product of your priorities, your priorities are a product of you......
The replacement of morality and conscience with law produces a deadly paradox.
STOP BEING GOOD DEMOCRATS---STOP BEING GOOD REPUBLICANS--START BEING GOOD AMERICANS
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In the next 20-30 years, their wealth will be passed 
