VIEWPOINT | The quiet engine behind Gen Z and Millennial malaise

Column by Veronique de Rugy

For years, pointing out the obvious was considered impolite: America’s biggest, most distortionary transfer of wealth does not flow from elites to the working class. Nor does it show up as corporate welfare. It flows from the relatively young and poor to the relatively old and wealthy. It’s the defining injustice of our fiscal regime, the largest driver of our government debt and the quiet engine behind the malaise of Millennials and Gen Z.

More than a decade ago, Nick Gillespie and I wrote a piece in Reason arguing that Social Security and Medicare had together become the great cause of America’s generational inequity. We noted that senior households were wealthier than ever while young households still working to make ends meet had to prop them up further.