A generation ago, young US households were three times wealthier than today

[Ichingcarpenter]

The wealth of typical households headed by people under 35 has collapsed over the past quarter-century, while the disparity in wealth between generations has quadrupled, according to a new analysis of Census Bureau data released Monday by the Pew Research Center.

In 2009, the median household headed by people under 35 had 68 percent less wealth than their counterparts in 1984. The household wealth of the typical family headed by someone under 35 was $3,662, down from $11,521 in 1984.

This has left the generational gap in wealth at the highest level on record. A typical household headed by someone 65 and older now has a median household wealth of $170,494, a figure 47 times greater than that of the younger generation. In 1984, this ratio had been 10 to one.

The wealth squeezed out of young people was not transferred between generations; rather it went into the pockets of the super-rich. Between 1979 and 2007, roughly the period covered by the Pew Research study, the richest 1 percent of US households nearly tripled their income and doubled their share of the national income.
The growth in the generational disparity has been the result of a confluence of social maladies. The fall in wages since the early 1980s has affected young workers more immediately than older ones. Likewise, the growth in education costs has affected young people more than other groups.


MORE:
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2011/nov2011/yout-n08.shtml

[girl gone mad]

1. k & r

[stillwaiting]

2. It's worse than that.

After converting 1984 dollars to 2011 dollars, young households in 1984 had MORE THAN SIX times the wealth they do today.

$1.00 in 1984 dollars had the same buying power as $2.16 2011 dollars according to http://www.dollartimes.com/calculators/inflation.htm

It wasn't clear from the article whether inflation had been taken into account, so I am assuming it has not.