iirc, survey of consumer finances is a pretty small sample size, and a repeated cross section, not a panel.  Measuring wealth changes on small samples / non-longitudinal data is pretty suss.  I don't think we should take these numbers with any confidence, as the large CIs suggest.

Ah ok, I think I see some of the discrepancy. 

1) timeline, I first saw that one tried to show (lack of stat sign) and the other the longer-run change, but now I see they're showing 2022-> Vs 2019->

The title of figure 1 is incorrect to say "not statistically significant", I believe. (Threw me off)

2) it's possible that boomers got rich(er) _without_ expropriating younger people — at least explicitly. That is, rising stock market/property tide rises all boats... except the ones who don't have any boats and/or can't swim. That's analogous to the West-Rest example: West got rich without necessarily stealing their shit from the other. 

3) it's also insane and revealing they have to involve cars(!), the quintessential depreciating "asset", to make their case. 


Bottom line: Boomers didn't explicitly _steal_ from the poor millennial (though technically, via social security taxes and payouts and Medicare in-kind benefits + other luxury boomer communism funded by taxes they definitely did), it's more of a relative multiple on equity/property than an outright expropriation. 

And getting 60% wealthier on 1m assets is a way bigger deal than getting 85% wealthier on your 10k 401(k)

denlillaapan

They’re showing the same thing over different timespans. You think the problem is the thing, rather than the timespan.

Basically, percentage terms are misleading because they make it look like Boomers gained about the same amount that Millennials lost. Your point about the differences in baselines implies that Millennials never had enough stuff in the first place to explain Boomer gains. It’s like the problem with explaining the rise of the West as a result of plundering the rest of the world.

econ

Are Boomers Getting Rich at Young Americans’ Expense? Not According to the Data

0xbitcoiner

They’re showing the same thing over different timespans. You think the problem is the thing, rather than the timespan. 

Basically, percentage terms are misleading because they make it look like Boomers gained about the same amount that Millennials lost. Your point about the differences in baselines implies that Millennials never had enough stuff in the first place to explain Boomer gains. It’s like the problem with explaining the rise of the West as a result of plundering the rest of the world.