To the editor: Contributing author Veronique de Rugy accurately describes extreme wealth distribution inequality and its results on the youthful generations (“The monetary engine behind millennial and Gen Z malaise,” Dec. 18). However she then chooses to disregard the most important driver: the tax cuts by Presidents Reagan, George W. Bush and Trump. The web price of the highest 1% hit a file $52 trillion this 12 months. That’s practically as a lot because the $55-trillion worth of your entire U.S. housing market.
De Rugy then quotes Prime Mover Institute managing director Russ Greene as saying, “Medicare packages are paying for golf balls, inexperienced charges, social membership memberships, horseback driving classes and pet meals.” Both Greene or De Rugy ought to have famous this is applicable virtually solely to some Medicare Benefit packages from personal insurers.
In line with the Heart on Finances and Coverage Priorities, with out Social Safety, 37.3% of Individuals age 65 and older would have incomes under the official poverty line. Together with Social Safety, that quantity goes right down to about 10%.
In the meantime, from 1989 to 2025, the highest 1% went from holding 23% of the nation’s web price to greater than 30%. In the identical time interval, the underside 50% went from holding 3.5% of the nation’s web price to only 2.8%. In line with a 2020 Rand report, an estimated $47 trillion flowed from the underside 90% of Individuals to the highest 1% from 1975 to 2018.
This isn’t as a result of Social Safety and Medicare; it’s fully as a result of Republican-backed tax cuts.
Norman Rodewald, Moorpark
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To the editor: Actually? I used to chortle at my grownup youngsters when their solely response to me for his or her displeasure was, “OK, boomer.”
I’m a senior in my 70s, and I don’t obtain a Social Safety examine as a result of I devoted my profession to public service for 46 years. I’ve gathered wealth, primarily on account of paying consideration in my school economic system courses.
As an alternative of piling onto seniors with round lower than 20 years of wholesome life left, I slightly chalk up the cited malaise to totally different instances, totally different locations and the eye paid to what you’re voting for. With that stated, after studying this op-ed, I’ve to ask: How do I get a chunk of that Medicare program that pays for “golf balls, greens charges, social membership memberships, horseback driving classes, and pet meals”?
Charles Singer, North Hills
