Retirees now make up 27% of our population. By nature they report very low incomes and also very low spending. They also happen to be sitting on large amounts of wealth. Which is why you get some paradoxical results when trying to analyze the health of our economy - your age is an even stronger predictor of how you feel about the economy than your income!
The retiree boom does not cause inequality - but it exacerbates it. It emphasizes the glut of money on the market and inflated asset prices. And especially things like healthcare and housing costs.
Ironically, the one thing that would save us would be increasing the share of working age families through immigration.
It all changes hands within a few decades though. Nobody lives forever.
Unfortunately they’re trying.
randycupertino•2mo ago