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Our own cperciva wrote an interesting take on wealth inequality: http://www.daemonology.net/blog/2011-01-10-inequality-in-equalland.html http://www.daemonology

Our own cperciva wrote an interesting take on wealth inequality: http://www.daemonology.net/blog/2011-01-10-inequality-in-equalland.html http://www.daemonology.net/blog/2011-01-10-inequality-in-equ... The elderly should have significantly more accumulated wealth than the young, because they've had longer to save. How much more, I couldn't say. But I'm always skeptical of attempts to tug at my heartstrings by pointing out that "those people" have more wealth than "these people" without some sort of systemic model to back up the complaint and explain what the proper level of inequality should be.

fr0sty 15y ago
This article (or one like it) needs to see wide circulation as a counterpoint to the posted article. All things being equal and assuming some sort of positive savings rate and return on investment older people will _always_ be richer than younger people. What's more when your denominator is so small (old / young) the increasing X% just becomes silly. If their average wealth decreases $600 (which is the projected impact of rising gas prices next year, I believe) the elderly will then be 56X as wealthy. Personally, the fact that the average not-old person is swimming in consumer debt, has a 0% savings rate, and that by their own choosing is the real story and one that no one seems willing to touch.