Abstract
The cohorts born between 1956 and 1975 have experienced a historically distinctive high-inequality economic environment during critical developmental stages. Income, wealth and health data on these cohorts provide a sobering perspective on the effects of economic transformation and other societal trends on their late-life prospects. By midlife, their income distribution became “hollowed out” relative to previous cohorts, experiencing with increasing shares of income and wealth going to those at the top of the distribution. They are also approaching their retirement years with many indicators of social malaise including worsening health status, mortality, morbidity, opioid addiction, alcohol abuse, suicide and overall age-specific mortality rates relative to previous cohorts’ experience at midlife, and opioid addiction. Results suggest that the forces driving inequality in both economic and health outcomes in late life will likely be exacerbated for the cohorts who will be entering late life between the present and mid-century.