Are Millennials the Screwed Generation?
“Generation(s) Screwed.”
… Median net worth of people under 35 … fell 37 percent between 2005 and 2010; those over 65 took only a 13 percent hit… .
… median net worth of households headed by someone 65 or older is $170,494, 42 percent higher than in 1984, while the median net worth for younger-age households is $3,662, down 68 percent from a quarter century ago …
… Since 2008 the percentage of the workforce under 25 has dropped 13.2 percent … while that of people over 55 has risen by 7.6 percent… .
… unemployment rate for people between 18 and 29 is 12 percent in the U.S., nearly 50 percent above the national average …
… screwed generation … loaded down by a mountain of boomer- and senior-incurred debt—debt that spirals ever more out of control… .
… boomers’ bill has risen to about $50,000 a person …
… huge public-employee pensions … represent an extreme case of intergenerational transfer from young to old …
… [The Screwed Generations’ Student Loan] debt often results from the advice of teachers, largely boomers, that only more education could solve the long-term issues of the young … [but] the payback for this expensive education appears to be a chimera… .
… politics is just another place where American millennials are getting screwed. Republicans want to deport young Latinos while cutting investments, such as roads and skills education, that would benefit younger voters. Democrats, meanwhile, seem determined to mortgage the future with high spending on pensions, predominantly for aging boomers; cascading indebtedness; and economic policies unfriendly to the rapid growth necessary to assure upward mobility for the new generation.