Classless Warfare, Part 2

The new figures on net worth and age are astounding: Americans over 65 have, on average, 47 times the net worth of Americans under 35 now.

According to analysis by the Pew Research Center released Monday, younger Americans have been left behind as the oldest generation has seen wealth surge since the mid-1980s.

While it's typical for older generations to hold more wealth than younger ones who've had less time to save, the gap between the two age groups has widened rapidly.

In 1984, households headed by people age 65 and older were worth just 10 times the median net worth of households headed by people 35 and younger.

But now that gap has widened to 47-to-one, marking the largest wealth gap ever recorded between the two age groups.

"We don't know how the story ends, but we know how the story is beginning," said Paul Taylor, executive vice president of the Pew Research Center. "At the beginning, today's young people are not doing better than yesterday's young adults."

By the way, this means Republicans of course will say "It's time to cut Social Security to fix this wealth imbalance!"  Of course, what that means is the people already over 65 get to keep their benefits, and those my age will never see Social Security at all, so by "fix" I mean "The Republicans finish the wealth transfer from my generation and younger to the Boomers."

And so it goes.  Perhaps we can get to 100 to 1 after the next crash.