A prior generation of workers preserved rich pensions for itself, while limiting my generation and those after to 401Ks, with the company at first contributing to them, and then stopping. And, I have written elsewhere, younger generations will not get health insurance either. The IRS, in order for health insurance to be excluded from taxable income, requires all company employees to receive it. But employers and employees with seniority have gotten around that by hiring the young as “freelancers” and “contractors,” a category that includes a growing share of the workforce. Now, reported the New York Times, “scores of workers from MTV Networks walked off the job yesterday afternoon, filling the sidewalk outside the headquarters of its corporate parent, Viacom, to protest recent changes in benefits. The walkout highlighted the concerns of a category of workers who are sometimes called permalancers: permanent freelancers who work like full-time employees but do not receive the same benefits.” Hey kids, you might want to turn your attention to public policy. Viacom is a loving parent compared with the federal, state and local governments.
Freelancers are paying two local income taxes (including the Unincorporated Business Tax) while the retired are exempted from both state and local income taxes in New York. The young and workign poor are not receiving health insurance, but their taxes pay for those who receive it from the public sector (seniors, public employees) and offset the taxes lost to the health insurance tax exemption. And that is just two examples of the growing generational inequities. Worse for today’s young than for me, undoubtedly worse for my kids than for today’s young, if something isn’t done. Compared with many of the self employed, these college-educated media workers are in fact well off.