Dear Editor:

Most people over 40 have no tuition debt and stable jobs. They paid in to Social Security and will be getting something back. Many still have access to quality health care. Their public schools were calm and competent. They trusted their elected officials and law enforcement. During hard times, they were able to rely on supportive families, adequately funded government assistance, and perhaps even faith in God.

Now, compare all that with what is left to those under 40. Many of the above advantages are starkly unavailable to them and more challenges loom. They inhabit cities and states that are spending themselves into insolvency. They continue to lose millions of job opportunities to imported cheap labor and outsourced manufacturing. They can no longer rely on Social Security, now understood to be an unsustainable pyramid scheme. They are facing scandalously inflated college tuition costs. The daily news demands that they cynically question every facet of government and the judicial system. They are irrationally fearful that the cost of just one serious injury or illness could financially hamstring them for decades.

In essence, we are now a country divided by age and life experiences: those who still benefit from America’s most prosperous years, and those who never will. Personally, my understanding of history and economics prohibits me from choosing socialism and statism over a free market economy and American Republicanism, but I can also fully appreciate the Bernie (Sanders) phenomenon, even though it makes me wonder about my country’s future.

Phil Molvar

Southport