Gen X Wealth Disparities
A story in The Sydney Morning Herald today by Matt Wade:
Rich get richer, the young get poorer
But before those of us in Gen X lapse into a fresh round of complaints about baby boomers, it’s worth considering other dimensions of inequality highlighted by the NATSEM report.
It showed that the richest fifth of the Australian population is 40 times wealthier than the poorest fifth, regardless of age. The wealthiest quintile of households accounts for 55 per cent of all wealth, while the bottom 40 per cent owns just 8 per cent of all wealth.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the media’s coverage of the study last week downplayed these findings. Some media reports focused on the overall increase in wealth that Australian households have enjoyed since 1993. Others highlighted the role that superannuation has played in building household wealth. Super is now the second biggest contributor to household wealth after home equity.
The massive gap between the richest and poorest was treated as a kind of footnote.
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Posted to Oh, the Humanity • 2002.09.23 (Mon) • 23:08
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