to the editor: The writer Véronique de Rugy correctly describes the serious inequality in the distribution of wealth and its effects on the younger generations (“The financial engine behind the malaise of millennials and generation Z” December 18). But then he decides to ignore the most important factor: the tax cuts of Presidents Reagan, George W. Bush and Trump. The net worth of the top 1% hit a record $52 trillion this year. That's almost as much as the Value of 55 billion dollars of the entire American real estate market.
De Rugy then quotes Prime Mover Institute managing director Russ Greene as saying, “Medicare programs pay for golf balls, green fees, social club memberships, horseback riding lessons and pet food.” Either Greene or De Rugy should have noticed This applies almost exclusively to some Medicare Advantage programs from private insurers.
According to the Center for Political and Budgetary PrioritiesWithout Social Security, 37.3% of Americans age 65 and older would have incomes below the official poverty line. Including Social Security, that figure drops to about 10%.
Meanwhile, from 1989 to 2025The top 1% went from owning 23% of the country's net worth to more than 30%. In the same period, the bottom 50% went from owning 3.5% of the country's net worth to just 2.8%. According to a 2020 rand reportAn estimated $47 trillion flowed from the bottom 90% of Americans to the top 1% between 1975 and 2018.
This is not because of Social Security or Medicare; is due entirely to Republican-backed tax cuts.
Norman Rodewald, Moorpark
..
to the editor: Actually? I used to laugh at my adult children when their only response to their displeasure was, “It's okay, boomer.”
I am a person over 70 years old and I do not receive a Social Security check because I dedicated my career to public service for 46 years. I have accumulated wealth, primarily as a result of paying attention in my college economics classes.
Instead of lumping together older people who have less than 20 years of healthy life left, I prefer to attribute the aforementioned discomfort to different times, different places, and the attention paid to what is voted on. That said, after reading this op-ed, I have to ask: How do I get a piece of that Medicare program that pays for “golf balls, green fees, social club memberships, horseback riding lessons, and pet food”?
Charles Singer, Northern Hills
