The New Generation Gap? Net Worth Of Seniors Nearly 50 Times That Of Youth

Think getting old is a drag now? Just wait until today's under-35 crowd gets to "retirement" age. The liberalization of trade over the past 40 years appears to be taking a more pronounced toll on the younger generations. Will America be the United States of Tent Cities 50 years from now?

The wealth gap between younger and older Americans is more prounounced than ever before, according to U.S. Census Bureau statistics. The average senior citizen now possesses 47 times the net worth of the average under-35-year-old. That's nearly double the divide in 2005, according to the blog Economy in Crisis.

When they were just entering the workforce, today's older Americans had better access to decent-paying jobs, many of them requiring little more than high school degrees, whereas those 35 and under had much less job security compared to their elders, even with more advanced education.

The major factor contributing to the huge wealth gap among the generations? Free trade, of course, prompting U.S. companies to send jobs overseas.

"Many of our middle class manufacturing jobs have been relocated to low-wage countries, where goods are produced and shipped back to us. This means that instead of money spent on those goods staying in the U.S. and creating more jobs for Americans, a large amount of the money we spend is sent overseas to the benefit these foreign countries, to our detriment. It is difficult if not impossible to support communities where individuals can build net worth under those conditions," explains Jame Mooreland.

The solution? New public policies to recognize the detrimental effects of offshoring on our youth and nation as a whole.

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