It

Comment: It’s time to bridge the generation gap

Comment: It’s time to bridge the generation gap

We must address the generational imbalance at the heart of Britain’s society.

By Tobias Benedetto

It has been argued that the baby boomers caused most of the problems the world currently faces, while their voting power ensures it will be younger generations who are forced to provide the solution.

This argument is being revisited with increasing frequency throughout these demanding economic times, and no wonder, as the widening disparities between the generations have been drawn into sharp focus as the purse strings have tightened.

The search for solutions to this debate could provide an opportunity to cure the ills of this yawning generation gap, and in so doing cure many of the ills which inflict society as a whole.

The answer lies here because many of our most pressing problems emanate from the rift between young and old: youth unemployment, the pensions black hole, care services for the elderly stretched to breaking point. These are just a handful of the outrages that spring to mind.

If we pull together we will pull out of the downturn faster and build a stronger, more cohesive and secure recovery. What better way to do this than to combine the energy of youth with the power and resources of the older generation?

Francis Beckett sets out this argument in his critique of the post-war generation, What Did the Baby Boomers Ever Do For Us?, published this week.

Central to these points is a stark reflection on the selfishness of himself and his contemporaries. “It was as though we decided the freedom and lack of worry we inherited was too good for our children, and we pulled up the ladder we had climbed,” he wrote in the Guardian.

Beckett covers ground so familiar to this debate it barely requires further analysis – for instance that his generation received the benefits of a golden age of free higher education, student grants, and plentiful job opportunities, all of which are now denied to the young.

It is not simply a matter of the baby boomers having it all and the younger generation having nothing. In fact, both have as much to offer as the other. By pooling these very different but complimentary resources we can reap the benefits of a diverse and multi-faceted society that is more than a sum of its parts.

Without a society that functions for the good of everyone there can be no cooperation, no passing down of knowledge, no utilisation of the energy of the young or the financial resources of the old.

There can only be protectionism, waste and the high walls of gated developments and gated minds.

What is more, if we cannot settle our differences it is not simply the young who will suffer. If the younger generation is lost then everything the older generation have spent their lives working and fighting for will be lost along with them. And the collective dream they placed in the minds of their children will be shattered.

The views expressed in politics.co.uk’s comment pages are not necessarily those of the website or its owners.