It's offical Baby Boomers - Greediest Gen EVER

http://www.news.com.au/national/is-it-time-for-the-older-generation-to-pay/story-fncynjr2-1227153878535

THE wealth of older Australians is increasing but this is happening at the expense of younger people.

Households aged between 65 and 74 today are $200,000 more wealthy than households of that age eight years ago, despite experiencing a global financial crisis during that time. Meanwhile the wealth of households aged 25 to 34 has gone backwards, according to the report The Wealth of Generations by independent think-tank the Grattan Institute.

It is no surprise that the housing boom has helped older Australians to become richer, while those who did not own property before 1995, seem to have missed out on huge windfall profits.

But rising property prices do not tell the whole story.

Incomes for older Australians also grew at a faster rate than young people, and this allowed them to save more.

Despite this rise in income, older Australians also paid less tax. Why?

The report says superannuation tax arrangements for older people could be playing a part. This is because people over 60 years old can reduce their income tax by up to $5000 a year via super tax concessions, and they can also use the Seniors and Pensioners Tax Offset to reduce their tax payable by up to $1600. This is regardless of whether they are actually retired.

Grattan Institute chief executive officer John Daley told news.com.au in August that these “outrageous” perks for older people were just a couple of measures that could be pulled back in order to balance the budget.

“Young Australians should be furious about this,” Mr Daley said at the time.

The report into the wealth of Australians also identified that older generations get a lot more from the country’s tax and welfare system, compared to younger people.

“A household headed by someone over 65 today receives $4400 more in real terms in welfare benefits each year than did the equivalent household 20 years ago,” the report notes. Most of this increase is due to a higher age pension.

Ben_Reilly wrote:I will completely agree with this, it's very true in the U.S. as well. The Baby Boom got a much more equitable share of corporate earnings than their children and now grandchildren, and was the generation that decided fuck it with profit sharing, let's funnel most of the money a capitalist enterprise earns to a few people at the top.

It's OK, though -- no society is ever going to treat people like this without fueling a revolt. It will come if reforms aren't made, and the longer it takes, the nastier it will be. If we figure out a way now to allow people to improve their station and a modicum of dignity and mobility, we'll avoid violence.

veya_victaous wrote:This is obvious to anyone is Australia that is not A baby boomer... baby boomers have the hide to say it was hard when they were young, facts say they got 90% of early life cost like University for FREE and only paid 30%-50% of the principle price comparative to wages for all the resources have received more tax breaks than any generation ever and more middle class welfare than any generation ever and They removed it all once they were no longer eligible.

Irn Bru wrote:

veya_victaous wrote:
This is obvious to anyone is Australia that is not A baby boomer... baby boomers have the hide to say it was hard when they were young, facts say they got 90% of early life cost like University for FREE and only paid 30%-50% of the principle price comparative to wages for all the resources have received more tax breaks than any generation ever and more middle class welfare than any generation ever and They removed it all once they were no longer eligible.

Veya, wouldn't many Australian baby boomers be immigrants from Europe, particularly the UK? They arrived by the boatload and many lived in camps before being settled I believe.

http://john.curtin.edu.au/1940s/populate/