When asking which generation is getting hit worst from the financial crisis, I think the main questions are pretty simple: Who is most reliant on investment income for everyday life? And who is least likely to see the market reach full recovery and even reenter a period of sustained and rapid growth? In both case, the answer is the elderly. My generation might be facing a crummy job market, and the Boomers might have to work a few more years, but those groups have options that can vary their income in order to ride out the crisis. The elderly often don't. Which is why I've a real affection for a policy Jamie Galbraith floated during a panel discussion I attended wherein we'd see a temporary 30% boost in Social Security payments for seniors (you could vary it by income if you so pleased). Since most of the elderly also have to spend a lot of their monthly income in fairly short order, this could probably work as an effective and rapid stimulus measure, too.
