Only if you believe this is a natural stationary progression. In practice, it very likely is not, and current 20 years old won’t be as rich as current 80 years old if only they manage to survive 60 years.
Given economic growth I’d expect current 20 year olds to on average be richer than current 80 year olds by the time they are 80. If that doesn’t happen, something has probably gone wrong, unless it’s because of something like “more people are living to 80 by spending money on healthcare during their 50′s/60′s/70s”.
Albeit with wilder swings, current 80 year olds in the US lived and worked through some of the years of highest GDP growth ever. That’s not necessarily reproducible. In addition, one’s net worth isn’t just a linear function of the integral of the GDP throughout their life. For example, being able to buy a house early is a big boost because now you have capital that appreciates, possibly faster than the interests on your debt accrue. Meanwhile if you have to rent, your money disappears down a black hole. Guess what’s a big difference between Boomers and Gen Z.
Leftwing point of view:
Its a wealth transfer to younger people. Im fully aware that middle aged people have college debt.
Conversely wealth inequality by age is fairly extreme.
So I remain extremely in favor of student debt cancellation. Note I have never taken on any student debt so I obviously dont have any.
Why is it bad to have wealth inequality by age? Basically everyone gets to be every age, so there’s nothing “unfair” about it.
Only if you believe this is a natural stationary progression. In practice, it very likely is not, and current 20 years old won’t be as rich as current 80 years old if only they manage to survive 60 years.
Given economic growth I’d expect current 20 year olds to on average be richer than current 80 year olds by the time they are 80. If that doesn’t happen, something has probably gone wrong, unless it’s because of something like “more people are living to 80 by spending money on healthcare during their 50′s/60′s/70s”.
Albeit with wilder swings, current 80 year olds in the US lived and worked through some of the years of highest GDP growth ever. That’s not necessarily reproducible. In addition, one’s net worth isn’t just a linear function of the integral of the GDP throughout their life. For example, being able to buy a house early is a big boost because now you have capital that appreciates, possibly faster than the interests on your debt accrue. Meanwhile if you have to rent, your money disappears down a black hole. Guess what’s a big difference between Boomers and Gen Z.