The wealth gap between younger and older Americans is reported to be wider than ever. According to census bureau numbers young working families are worse off than older people. This would be expected if you consider that the longer you work the more your income goes up and the more you save for retirement. And when you’re starting out, you’re not making as much.

But funny thing about this is I don’t feel wealthy. And I sure don’t want young people thinking their elders are all sipping Glenlivet and perusing the cruise catalog.

I recognize the horrible squeeze on young people. I’m related to some. But older people have taken some of the same hits.

The numbers show the typical American household headed by a person 65 and older has a net worth 47 times greater than a household headed by someone under 35. That is, a median net worth of $3,662 for young families opposed to $170,494 for older ones.

The Pew Research Center analyzed the discrepancy this way. Young families are hurting because they’ve got mortgages on houses that aren’t worth as much as they paid for them and carry a load of student loans and credit card debt. The old are presumably doing better because we are thought to have paid off our houses and have investments. And on top of that we get Social Security.

And that’s when I thought uh-oh, this sounds like ammunition for generation warfare. And there it was.

Responding to the report, economist Harry Holzer from Georgetown University said, “It makes us wonder whether the extraordinary amount of resources we spend on retirees and their health care should be at least partially reallocated to those who are hurting worse than them.”

Oh Harry, I do agree. In part.  If you are eligible for Social Security and don’t need it or you can tell Medicare no thanks it would be a grand gesture to pass it on to a young family, maybe your own children and grandchildren.

But while I know some retirees who are living quite well, I doubt the majority of  oldsters are feeling fat on Social Security.  According to the Social Security Administration most retirees count on those monthly checks for a major  chunk of their income. And people over 65 represent the fastest growth in bankruptcy filings.

As for sharing the wealth that’s pretty much the message of the Occupy Wall Street movement. But the occupiers’ beef is not with greedy grannies. It’s with the one percent with all the dough. That’s why you see signs that say “Education is a Right” next to ones insisting “Save Medicare not Billionaires.”

I don’t know many older people who are leading a madcap life – okay, a few – but I do worry the image handily serves those wanting to gut retirement programs . We old ones are pretty mad at the system, too. Older people can remember when they were in their 30s and struggling and hoping that by the time they were in their 60s they would be feeling a lot more secure.

Older people are part of the dwindling middle class., too. We’ve seen our savings and investments shredded. We too have been hit by the housing bubble.  If we have any extra we may be paying for our adult kids’ health insurance or paying on those students loans and even caring for elderly parents.

I know plenty in their 60s and early 70s who say,  “I’m going to be working until I die.”

In fact the wage gap study noted that older Americans are holding onto to their jobs longer than ever while young people are facing the highest unemployment since World War II.

So, if we’re so wealthy why are we still working?

Sometimes I feel like our political leaders are involved in a street fight. And it’s getting ugly and scary and we’re not sure what the fight is really about. And who started it and how it will end. But one thing we do suspect is that when it’s over the blood will be on us.

Or it’s like a domestic squabble where the police are called to figure out what’s going on and in the process one of the cops gets shot. And we’re the cop.

I’ve been dealing a lot in images lately because I feel there is such little straight talk on what’s really happening in the free-for-all over the deficit, spending cuts, tax breaks, tax loopholes, entitlements, revenue increases and the debt ceiling.

We’re just sitting there waiting for the fight to end and see how we get hit.

The president likes his metaphors. He says we have to rip off the Band-Aid. He says we have to eat our peas. Tighten the old belts. I know he’s talking to me when he says that and people like me. But, is that everybody? Are the rich eating their peas?

I’ve pretty much stopped paying attention to political leaders of either side who talk about “our seniors” as if they really care. If you care about “our seniors” you don’t bludgeon Medicare and Social Security. Right now I feel like those of us who thought we could rely on both are being pushed to the edge of a cliff and some people are yelling “save them” and others are saying “jump.”

It’s particularly telling when members of Congress talk about “our seniors” as if they aren’t one of us. The average age of both houses of Congress is 58, which is old enough to be long on the AARP mailing list and to move into a retirement community. You’d think they’d relate but they don’t. Is it because nearly half of Congress are millionaires? So they don’t personally worry about safety nets. And so all the talk is about getting rid of programs rather than figuring out a way to save them.

Here’s another image. We like to say we’re all in the same boat but this one feels like the Titanic.
The rich are on top and the rest of us are in steerage. And when the ship starts to take on water, the people in steerage are the first to drown and the people upstairs keep dancing. But then the whole thing goes under. And even the rich are looking around for the security of a life boat.

The problem with the word entitlement is that it has a couple of meanings and many inferences.

The dictionary defines an entitlement as something for which someone has a rightful claim, provided to them by law and contract. Like Medicare. But it’s come to also imply an unreasonable expectation of special treatment or privileges.

When you mix up the two uses of the word, which politicians often do, it creates confusion.

That is why many who receive Medicare and believe in the government program, object to it being called an entitlement. Because while Medicare is an entitlement in the sense of a lawful claim, it is not an entitlement in the sense of “who do you think you are” special privilege case.

I am entitled to Medicare not because I am a money moocher but because by mutual agreement, between me and my government, I put in money through my working years, in order to receive government-provided health insurance at 65. But that doesn’t mean that I am asking for a handout, something only a senior slacker would expect from a nanny state.

Just because I want what is owed me does not mean I am asking for special treatment. Do not confuse me with someone who has a “sense of entitlement,” in the manner of someone born with a silver spoon in her mouth.

I’ve been paying for Medicare for the more than 40 years I received a paycheck. And I’m still paying for it in premiums. But I don’t expect something for nothing because I’ve had a bunch of birthdays.

Frankly, I could probably survive without a special senior ticket at the movies. I don’t need to get 10 percent off at the hardware store on Wednesdays or a discount every Thursday at the department store. The senior ski passes are a pretty good savings, however. And it is all very generous of people who want to give customers in their 60s a break. But it’s not necessary. If the airport shuttle was losing money on giving me $2 off my ride to San Francisco International I’d be happy to pony up and pay full price.

However, I do expect to receive what my government promised me. I’ve had money taken from my paycheck since 1966 and am now old enough to collect on my investment. That includes Social Security, too, another entitlement caught in the name game.

And if someone tries to take them away, Medicare or Social Security, or to suggest I’d be better off to let the banks and insurance companies do it for me, I feel very entitled to scream bloody murder. Or at least, liar, liar, pants on fire.

Besides, Medicare is no freebie. I pay around $90 a month to the government for Medicare in case I need to go to the hospital. And another $90 to Kaiser so I can go to a doctor and get the pills I need.

Maybe there are people who don’t feel entitled to Medicare and don’t need it. Maybe they’d rather buy the best platinum insurance coverage they can get. Maybe they should all pool their unneeded Medicare allowance – even though it is their legal entitlement – and donate it back to the government. That might help the old federal budget.

Now, if you want to look at someone with a sense of entitlement how about the very wealthy? Some of them seem to feel entitled to team up with their banker and Wall Street pals and send the country over a cliff and then ask for a bail-out, tax breaks and obscene bonuses. Talk about an undeserving bunch expecting special treatment.

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