{"id":32,"date":"2012-06-29T02:56:53","date_gmt":"2012-06-29T02:56:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wallstreetandkstreet.com\/?p=32"},"modified":"2012-08-22T18:40:03","modified_gmt":"2012-08-22T18:40:03","slug":"quadruple-whammy-for-younger-adults","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wallstreetandkstreet.com\/?p=32","title":{"rendered":"Quadruple Whammy for Younger Adults"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>When it comes to social engineering, you can usually depend on Washington to do the wrong thing.\u00a0 If it is not overturned, Obamacare will increase income inequality by imposing a new tax on younger workers.\u00a0 Older Americans are growing richer while younger Americans are getting poorer, as shown by the Federal Reserve\u2019s\u00a0<em>Survey of Consumer Finances<\/em>, for the period 2001-2010.\u00a0 Households headed by a person under age 44 saw their <strong>median income decline<\/strong> more than 14%; those headed by someone age 65-74 enjoyed a 25% <strong>rise<\/strong> in median income.<\/p>\n<p>This long-term trend has been exacerbated by the sluggish economic recovery, which has <strong>kept unemployment rates extremely high<\/strong> for younger workers.\u00a0 The unemployment rate is 8.2% for those aged 25-34 versus 6.4% for those over the age of 44.<\/p>\n<p>The financial problems of young adults are compounded by <strong>educational debt<\/strong>.\u00a0 Two thirds of college students graduate with college loans, which averaged $25,500 in 2010.<\/p>\n<p>What has President Obama done for these young adults struggling with declining incomes, high unemployment, and heavy education debts?\u00a0 He is hitting them with a<strong> big new tax<\/strong>, Obamacare\u2019s individual mandate.\u00a0 It requires citizens without healthcare coverage to pay a penalty, which is the greater of $695 per year up to a maximum of $2085 per family, or 2.5% of household income.\u00a0 The tax will be phased in over three years starting in 2014; after 2016 it is indexed to inflation.\u00a0 So in 2016 a household earning $50,000 pays 2.5% or $1,250, which is worse than it sounds because $1,250 is a much larger share of <strong>after-tax<\/strong> income.\u00a0 This tax will hit younger adults the hardest, because they are more likely to lack health insurance.\u00a0 According to the Census, 28% of people age 25 to 34 do not have Health Insurance Coverage vs. 16% for those age 45-64 and 2% for those over 65.<\/p>\n<p>Given these multiple burdens on younger workers, it is no wonder the economy is weak.\u00a0 Where are the outraged Keynesians bemoaning Obama\u2019s destimulative fiscal policy?<\/p>\n<p><em>Sources<\/em>:\u00a0 Federal Reserve, Survey of Consumer Finance; BLS; U.S. Census<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When it comes to social engineering, you can usually depend on Washington to do the wrong thing.\u00a0 If it is not overturned, Obamacare will increase income inequality by imposing a new tax on younger workers.\u00a0 Older Americans are growing richer &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wallstreetandkstreet.com\/?p=32\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[12,14,13],"class_list":["post-32","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-demographics","tag-obamacare","tag-student-loans"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wallstreetandkstreet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wallstreetandkstreet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wallstreetandkstreet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wallstreetandkstreet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wallstreetandkstreet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=32"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.wallstreetandkstreet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":45,"href":"https:\/\/www.wallstreetandkstreet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32\/revisions\/45"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wallstreetandkstreet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=32"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wallstreetandkstreet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=32"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wallstreetandkstreet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=32"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}