I’m genuinely curious whether the outlier is the baby boom generation (extending to a lesser degree to the Xers). The macroeconomic factors that caused the boomers to thrive are pretty extreme and unsustainable.
Is there any reason we expect sustained growth in that degree?
Turns out sidelining, dissolving and privatizing any kind of social safety nets for older folks just leads to those older folks squeezing any and all assets in search of passive income. When the only rational choice for support in the years where your body can no longer perform labor is rent-seeking, can we be surprised that the rents are sought?
Agreed. The difference to before is probably only that rent seeking is possible, because the post-war generation had lots of innovations (oil, plastics, electronics) to exploit.