Bernie Goldbach in Cashel | Photo of the squeezed generation
WHILE POPULIST OPINION in Ireland lays blame for the current deep recession on bankers, generational theorist Neil Howe cites the "greed, shortsightedness, and blind partisanship" of people in my generation for having "brought the global economy to its knees."
Median net worth of my twenty something daughters fell 37% during 2005 and 2010. This puts the wealth gap today between younger and older Americans at the widest on record.
Even though I live in another country, I benefited from a robust housing market and few believe those glory days will return.
The public debt in America and in Ireland continues spiraling out of control. It means higher taxes, less infrastructure, reduced social services and painfully slow growth for the foreseeable future.
Sound bites from Irish government ministers remind listeners of more pain in the budgets ahead. But relatively speaking, the young are carrying the can for pensioners and for those on comfortable State pensions. The system is preserving a widening wealth gap.
Bernie Goldbach teaches millenials at the Limerick Institute of Technology.
