Comparing the incomes of different generations at the same ages, scientists came to the conclusion that modern youth are several times poorer than young people of the late 1980s.
The US Federal Reserve System (FRS) has released data on the level of income of different generations. The boomers turned out to be the richest, and the millennials were simply beggars by comparison.
For clarity of the picture, we present the division of people into generations according to the theory of William Strauss and Neil Howe. Boomers are people born between 1945 and 1963 when there was an increase in fertility (baby boom, hence the boomers). Gen X people were born between 1964 and 1984, and Gen Y, or millennials, were born from 1985 to 2004.
The difference in wealth between boomers and millennials is not due to boomers being older, as the researchers compared the incomes of these generations at the same age periods.
In 1989, when the Boomers were between 25 and 43 years old, they owned a fifth of the wealth of the United States, namely 20.9%. Millennials turn 23 to 38 during 2019 and currently only own 3.2% of the country's wealth. That is, in 1989, boomers had six times more than millennials have now.
The Fed's data show that the difference in the level of wealth between generations tends to increase. Even Gen Xers are better off than millennials. So in 2001, when they were between 22 and 36 years old, they owned 5.7% of the wealth of the United States, which is almost double what millennials have today.
This income inequality does not go unnoticed and causes discontent. Meanwhile, it is millennials who today are the active electorate voting in elections. In any case, in the USA. To win them over to their side, candidates promise to fight inequality. But young people know that they have been deceived, and more and more often present this to the older generations.
Kirill Panov
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