WASHINGTON, May 21 (UPI) -- The growing divide between rich and poor in the United States has more to do with age than class, an analysis of Federal Reserve data indicate.
USA Today reports nearly all additional wealth created in the United States since 1989 has gone to people who were 55 and older.
The increase in the wealth of older people tracks a sharp reduction in elderly poverty that began in the 1960s when Medicare was introduced and Social Security benefits were improved.
While older people have always been wealthier than younger people, what's changed is the disparity between the generations, USA Today reports.
Older people have been racing ahead helped by government retirement benefits while young people are running in place, partly because they delay careers to get more education.
The wealth gap between young and old is on a path to grow even more extreme as the nation's 79 million baby boomers get set to retire, the newspaper says.
