To the editor: Contributing writer Veronique de Rugy correctly describes severe wealth distribution inequality and its effects on the younger generations (“The financial engine behind millennial and Gen Z malaise,” Dec. 18). But she then chooses to ignore the biggest driver: the tax cuts by Presidents Reagan, George W. Bush and Trump. The net worth of the top 1% hit a record $52 trillion this year. That’s nearly as much as the $55-trillion value of the entire U.S. housing market.
De Rugy then quotes Prime Mover Institute managing director Russ Greene as saying, “Medicare programs are paying for golf balls, green fees, social club memberships, horseback riding lessons and pet food.” Either Greene or De Rugy should have noted this applies almost exclusively to some Medicare Advantage programs from private insurers.
According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, without Social Security, 37.3% of Americans age 65 and older would have incomes below the official poverty line. Including Social Security, that number goes down to about 10%.
Meanwhile, from 1989 to 2025, the top 1% went from holding 23% of the nation’s net worth to more than 30%. In the same time period, the bottom 50% went from holding 3.5% of the nation’s net worth to just 2.8%. According to a 2020 Rand report, an estimated $47 trillion flowed from the bottom 90% of Americans to the top 1% from 1975 to 2018.
This is not due to Social Security and Medicare; it is entirely due to Republican-backed tax cuts.
Norman Rodewald, Moorpark
..
To the editor: Really? I used to laugh at my adult children when their only response to me for their displeasure was, “OK, boomer.”
I am a senior in my 70s, and I don’t 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 economy classes.
Instead of piling onto seniors with around less than 20 years of healthy life left, I rather chalk up the cited malaise to different times, different places and the attention paid to what you’re voting for. With 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, greens fees, social club memberships, horseback riding lessons, and pet food”?
Charles Singer, North Hills
