Posted on 06/15/2015 12:22:04 PM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
It’s no secret that the American middle class has been on the ropes for a while now. The problem isn’t just a crippling recession and an economic “recovery” that has mostly gone to the richest one percent, but the larger shifting of wealth from the middle to the very top that’s taken place since the late ‘70s. Add in things like the dismantling of unions that has accelerated apace since Ronald Reagan crushed the air-traffic controllers, and we’ve seen the middle class more solid in places like Canada, Germany, and Scandinavia, and begin to grow in a number of nations even while it shrinks here. Economists like Thomas Piketty thinks the process is inevitable with global capitalism, while others – the equally wise Joseph Stiglitz, for example – think the balance can be restored if we can find the political will.
It turns out that those concerned about a tattered middle class are right about most of it, but overlooking one thing: Boomers – or rather, a particular strain of Boomer and near-Boomer – are doing great. That is, if you were born in the ‘40s, you are going to be the last American generation to enjoy a robust safety net, and your gray years will be far more comfortable than those a decade older or younger.
Here’s a New York Times story, which looks at “the 25 million Americans now between the ages of 65 and 74”:
Supported by income from Social Security, pensions and investments, as well as an increasing number of paychecks from delaying retirement, older people not only weathered the economic downturn that began in 2007 but made significant gains, a New York Times analysis of government data has found.
And despite our generally ornery Xer jingoism, we’re going to concede something here. We’ve noticed that our friends who we could call “young Boomers” – born in the late ‘50s and early ’60s – are often far less privileged and spoiled than those born in the years right after World War II. This younger group grew up or came of ago, after all, in the ‘70s and ‘80s, as the postwar boom was fading, colleges were becoming expensive, and the Reagan Revolution was pulling the rug out from under the middle class.
And it turns out that those young Boomers are indeed a kind of transition generation. It’s the group now retiring that will take most of the spoils of the U.S. postwar boom and leave the rest of us with scraps:
In the past, the elderly were usually poorer than other age groups. Now, they are the last generation to widely enjoy a traditional pension, and are prime beneficiaries of a government safety net targeted at older Americans. They also have profited from the long rise in real estate prices that preceded the recession. As a result, more seniors now fall into the middle class — defined in this case between the 40th and 80th income percentile — than ever before.
If you wonder why you are working so hard to get a job, please note that a lot of these guys are sitting on theirs or at least working part-time. (It reminds us of the Onion story: “Parents With More Vacation Time, Financial Resources Want To Know When Son Will Come Home For A Visit.”)
The Times piece shows how a variety of Americans in that sub-generation is faring. Some are struggling, like the rest of us. But between the fancy cruises and fat pensions and gated communities and golf courses and vintage ‘57s Chevys, it’s not a world that younger Americans have any reason to expect. In fact, it sounds like something from a museum of postwar affluence.
So part of us is glad the American middle class will go out with a boom, so to speak. We don’t begrudge these people – our teachers and professors, our older friends, our parents and other relatives – comfort in their gray years. The way Americans, in the days before social security and other protections, lost their footings in old age was simply inhumane. But why couldn’t the prosperity be spread so that those born in the ‘50s, ‘60s, and after can enjoy the same stability and wealth?
Well, this is a complicated one, and we’ll nod to the usual suspects: Globalization, technology, and the depletion of natural resources (especially energy) meant that the postwar boom would not last forever.
But you know what else the original Boomers brought us? Despite their dabbling with progressivism and hippie utopianism, this group served as the shock troops for market-worshipping neoliberalism and the Reagan-Thatcher shift in the ‘70s and ‘80s. They gave us junk bonds and the privatization push and Gordon Gekko. Some of them went into the corporate world and started dismantling.
Let’s hope they enjoy their retirements. But these gray Boomers and grayer Silents – not all of them, but enough to do substantial damage – put forces in motion that mean for the rest of us, the twilight years will be significantly less cozy.
Scott Timberg is a staff writer for Salon, focusing on culture. A longtime arts reporter in Los Angeles who has contributed to the New York Times, he runs the blog Culture Crash. He's the author of the new book, "Culture Crash: The Killing of the Creative Class."
“By the way Social Security I paid into, dont make it sound like its a liberal given free bee.”
This is one of the most infuriating Boomer myths that are spouted by conservatives.
You didn’t pay in. You let your payments be distributed immediately to your parents, and you want your kids to pay for that choice.
Unless you are in the top five percent of income earners, or die young, you will get back more from social security than you ever paid into it. It is a free bee.
The 60s generation, they hit 1960 ranging in age from 15 to 35, they created all the music and activism.
LOL! I was born in the late 40s. Never been on a cruise. I had a '61 Chevy in college, an oil-burning deathtrap. I've never played golf. I've never lived in a gated community. I retired from the Navy, where living was spartan. The author of this piece is a Liberal idiot.
+1
“and we’ve seen the middle class more solid in places like Canada, Germany, and Scandinavia”
That was the Salon in the US. The below is the WSWS in Germany. Same story, just the names change ...
Germany: The shrinking middle class and the rise of inequality
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2008/03/germ-m22.html
‘the Reagan Revolution was pulling the rug out from under the middle class’
The left doesn’t understand the concept of ‘creating value’ thus creating REAL wealth. They believe stealing from each other is a viable alternative.
Reagan and Thatcher told us the party would end when you ran ‘out of other people’s money’. Well, here it is.
There’s a reason that private unions have gone the way of the doo-doo bird. You cannot fiscally support more retirees than you have workers. Epic FAIL.
Tell ya what: refund the money I've paid into FICA over the past 40 years, and I'll take care of myself and my family.
Over the past ten years alone, the amount confiscated from my employers and me is nearly $150,000, with no compounding.
The left have always wanted to destroy the bourgeoisie, especially the rural bourgeoisie, the kulaks.
“.......Venezuela’s housing shortage has doubled since former President Hugo Chavez’s wealth redistribution policies 15 years ago. The government’s new housing law is an effort to reverse that trend, by forcing landlords to sell apartment units to long-time tenants. Martin Markovits explores how Venezuelans are reacting.
For people like Maria Galvis , the new law is a dream come true. Due to her modest salary as a hairdresser she has never been able to buy the apartment she has been living in for more than 20 years. But now, thanks to a new law, she will finally get that chance.
This new housing law, sponsored by Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, seeks to address Venezuela’s chronic housing shortages. Residential realtors estimate the country has a deficit of about five million homes. And while the government recently launched a massive public housing program, it has not been enough.
This newly enacted law forces homeowners — who own more than three properties — to sell to tenants who have been living there for more than 20 years -and at government-regulated prices. Supporters say this seeks to bring justice to tenants who, they say, have long been charged high prices for apartments and this law will only impact big property owners.
But critics of the law say it is an attack on private property rights and another example of the Maduro socialist government heavy-handed approach to the economy.
Landlords will be given just 60 days to offer eligible tenants a chance to buy the property at a price, determined by the government, that most expect will be lower than market value.
The government says landowners who don’t comply with the new law may be hit with a fine of more than 40-thousand dollars and could lose their homes.”
http://www.cctv-america.com/2014/04/09/new-venezuelan-law-attempts-to-tackle-housing-shortage
All true. However, I do have some concerns. For us Gen X'ers (in our 30's and 40's) who started out following the example of Baby Boomers by educating ourselves and establishing a career with a firm only to find ourselves priced out of the labor market with offshoring, H1-B's or those priced out of the trades via illegal labor, what is the remedy?
Can someone in their mid-30s, trained to manage dozens of employees be retrained for employment in the trades? Would the trades accept such a person?
It would appear that the "right" degree is a STEM degree, according to FR. Can the same individual, educated and trained in business become an electrical engineer?
As we have seen, it only takes one Ronald Reagan to turn garbage into jewels. I’m loving writing Reagan’s biography. Every part of his life is inspiring.
Articles like these claiming the demise of the middle class are just wishful thinking on the part of progressives.
I’m a boomer with three grown children and they are doing just fine.
The people I work with mostly are younger than me and they aren’t boomers and they are also doing fine. Right on track with where I was at their age.
Getting a EE degree nearly burned me out and I was a teenager / early 20 something. They say it is the hardest degree to get.
Well, if you're talking about a few of my wife's stoner cousins that looks like the right size of shoe.
What inspired Ronald Reagan?
What happened is the hippies happened. Just undo their narcissistic nonsense, stop listening to them, electing them, and you’ll go a long way toward getting back on track IMHO.
Wrong again. We have 300 years of coal and 500 years of oil/natural gas. The only depletion going on is in your head.
Valid points. I ended up working in presentations centers of investment banks. Indians think it is beneath them and never knew I was making more than them in tech :)
trying times for a manager, you are right.
Socialists/liberals destroy the middle class while pinning the blame on conservatives. Classic marxist maneuver.
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