Generational warfare, anyone?

WASHINGTON, DC: An enduring puzzle of our politics is why there isn’t more generational conflict. By all rights, younger Americans should be resentful. Not only have they been tossed into the worst economy since the 1930s, but there’s an informal consensus that the government, whatever else it does, should protect every cent of Social Security and Medicare benefits for the elderly. These priorities seem lopsided and unfair.

Generational distress isn’t an abstraction; it’s repeatedly reaffirmed. Just recently, the Pew Research Center reported that 36 percent of women aged 18 to 34 live with their parents or other relatives, the highest proportion since 1940, also 36 percent. Among men of the same age, 43 percent live with their families, though that’s still below the 1940 level of 48 percent.