Shocking Admissions on the Pages of the New York Times

The New York Times ran a surprising op-ed on Sunday highlighting some structural problems in the US economy.

The issues raised in the column titled “We’re Making Life Too Hard for Millennials” by Wall Street executive and NYT contributing opinion writer Steven Rattner won’t surprise our regular readers. In fact, you will find the analysis rather familiar. But the fact that it appeared on the pages of the New York Times comes as quite a shock. Apparently, the mainstream is becoming aware of what we’ve been saying for years.

Rattner contends we should worry about future prospects for the millennial generation.

…be fretful over their economic well-being and fearful — oh so fearful — for their prospects. The most educated generation in history is on track to becoming less prosperous, at least financially, than its predecessors.”

In making his case, Rattner identifies a number of issues facing millennials, including declining wages, a stagnant job market, and ballooning student loan debt. He also focuses on some structural economic problems, including snowballing federal debt and a Social Security system in crisis.

In fact, after two decades of increasing earnings for workers in the 18-34 age range, median income dropped more than $3,000 between 2000 and 2013. This piles on top of rising student loan debt and means lower levels of overall wealth, as Rattner points out.

The wealth of millennials has been hit even harder than their incomes. Their median net worth was just $10,400 as of 2013, down 43 percent from the $18,200 that Gen Xers had in 1995 when they were under 35. With incomes squeezed, millennials are not only not saving much; they are dipping into whatever savings they do have.

Of course, these problems didn’t develop in a vacuum. This is where we find some pretty surprising admissions on the pages of the New York Times – the playground of Paul Kurgman.

The massive budget deficits of recent years and projected needs to meet future obligations to retirees will result in a steady increase in federal debt, from less than 80 percent of gross domestic product today to an estimated 181 percent of G.D.P. by 2090.

Rising national debt levels may threaten the ability of millennials to collect on promised Social Security and Medicare benefits. That’s not lost on millennials — only 45 percent expect to receive Social Security benefits during retirement (compared with 68 percent of baby boomers).

Rattner wraps up his column with some proposed solutions, such as higher taxes on his generation, and reforms to entitlement program that include benefit cuts “for the highest income Americans.” Nobody wants to hear this, but as the Greeks have learned, you can’t go on spending money indefinitely. At some point you have to pay the piper.

Although Rattner doesn’t come out and say so, his solutions indicate the impact of these structural economic problems isn’t limited to millennials. One way or another, we will all feel the effects of unrestrained government spending and mismanaged entitlement programs.

This means every American should prepare for what lies ahead. Greece offers us a peek at what the future could hold when the US government can no longer kick the can down the road.

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