This essay in Esquire outlines a real source of generational conflict - the baby boomers are going to retire comfortably, while young adult will find themselves scrambling as a result of a drastically weakened job market and a diminished social safety net.

Explains author Stephen Marche:

"Twenty-five years ago young Americans had a chance.

In 1984, American breadwinners who were sixty-five and over made ten times as much as those under thirty-five. The year Obama took office, older Americans made almost forty-seven times as much as the younger generation.

This bleeding up of the national wealth is no accounting glitch, no anomalous negative bounce from the recent unemployment and mortgage crises, but rather the predictable outcome of thirty years of economic and social policy that has been rigged to serve the comfort and largesse of the old at the expense of the young."