The generational wealth debate has taken a surprising turn. Recent data from the Federal Reserve and other analyses reveal that millennials and older Gen Zers have, on an inflation-adjusted basis, accumulated roughly 25 percent more wealth than Gen Xers and boomers had at comparable ages. This challenges the popular narrative that younger Americans are being left behind by their elders.
The St. Louis Fed study, cited in a recent column by Batya Ungar-Sargon, shows that by early 2024, millennials and older Gen Zers held $14.2 trillion in wealth, up from $4.5 trillion just four years earlier. The Wall Street Journal similarly found that the median net worth of older millennials more than doubled between 2019 and 2022, with even larger gains for younger millennials. Much of this surge is tied to real estate appreciation and retirement account growth.
Yet the political discourse often paints boomers as hoarding wealth and driving up costs for the young. Ungar-Sargon argues that boomers should be thanked, not blamed, for their economic contributions. She points out that boomers' hard work, savings, and investments fueled national growth through the turn of the century.
Housing costs and the boomer factor
One common grievance is that boomers refuse to downsize, limiting housing supply and inflating prices. But as Ungar-Sargon notes, housing was even more unaffordable in the early 1980s, when mortgage rates hit 18 percent. Adjusted for inflation, buying a home then was more expensive than today, according to housing economists.
Nevertheless, the Federal Reserve reports that between 2022 and 2025, the real net worth of the average American family rose only 2 percent, while older and wealthier households saw gains exceeding 30 percent. This disparity is partly because boomers have had decades to save and invest, benefiting from a booming stock market—the S&P 500 rose nearly 80 percent from 2022 to 2025, and another 12 percent in early 2026.
Work ethic and generational attitudes
The original column also highlighted attitudinal differences. Surveys show a decline in work ethic from boomers to millennials, with a temporary pickup among Gen Z that collapsed after COVID. For instance, the percentage of 18-year-olds willing to work overtime fell from 54 percent in 2020 to 36 percent in 2022—an all-time low in the survey's history. Similarly, the share of high school seniors expecting work to be a central life part dropped from nearly 40 percent in the 1970s to under 20 percent by 2022.
Gallup's 2023 report confirmed the reality of 'quiet quitting' among younger workers. Yet, ironically, young people's financial fortunes improved even as their workplace engagement waned. The Economist noted in 2024 that pay growth for 16-to-24-year-olds hit 13 percent year-over-year, compared to 6 percent for older workers—the highest 'young person premium' on record.
Boomers certainly contributed to some of the challenges millennials face, particularly the student debt crisis, driven by a misguided push for universal college attendance. But as Ungar-Sargon concludes, the wealth boomers built came from decades of work and saving, not exploitation. The data now shows that younger generations are, in fact, wealthier than their predecessors at the same age—a fact that should reshape the political narrative.
