There is a reason that we have Social Security. President Franklin Roosevelt submitted his Social Security proposal to Congress in early nineteen thirty five. Its final form emerged from Congress that August. One of Social Security’s primary goals is to lift the incomes of older Americans.
Older people are typically associated with lower incomes than the general population because many of them no longer work. But as reported in the Wall Street Journal, the gap between the incomes of those sixty five and older and the balance of the population has narrowed significantly in both Europe and the U.S. since the recession.
Seniors in the U.S. have recently enjoyed healthier income gains than their younger counterparts due to government and private pensions, investments, and among those who are still working, higher salaries. In some nations, including both France and Spain, people aged sixty and older now earn more on average than younger people do.
One of the reasons for this is that younger workers often wrestle with flat to declining compensation and less affordable housing. This has served to sap some of the spending power that helps fuel the economy, and helps explain why so many developed economies continue to struggle to expand at normal rates.
