He also pondered the apparent lack of hostility from younger generations:

What surprises me here, though, is how little resentment my generation attracts from 20-somethings. If I were a recent graduate saddled with tens of thousands of debt and poor job prospects as a result of the decisions made by my generation, I’d be livid.
So why are younger people so quiet? Is it because they are just passive? Or is it that they have other forms of luck which my generation didn’t.

On the face of it, it would be hard to argue that our generation benefits from other forms of luck which weren’t available to previous generations. Nor do I think younger people are passive.

However, it is true that they are less inclined to be democratically active than has historically been the case.

It is possible Chris’ generation is a factor behind this. As the baby-boomer bulge begin to retire, they are likely to become more politically vocal, rather than less (assuming the historic trend of pensioners being more engaged with the political process, rather than less). This will make it harder, not easier, for younger generations to try and address some of the legacies of an extraordinarily lucky (selfish?) generation in the UK’s history.

Issues such as taxation, retirement ages, immigration (which can help replacement ratios), social security, and global warming, and their consequences, are likely to be left to our generation to manage, but with the baby-boomers calling the shots via the ballot box.

If so, our only hope is that they encounter distinct principle-agent problems. Or we find a way of introducing compulsory euthanasia*.

In the meantime, our efforts are focused on finding jobs or keeping them in order to be able to afford the impending fiscal timebomb…

* The Economist’s Schumpeter column this week tackles the issue of an ageing workforce, and how business might cope. The column highlights two new novels which tackle issues relating to an ageing population, and is from where the euthanasia idea is sourced:

MARTIN AMIS and Christopher Buckley are writers who are entering their silver years and are worried about the costs of an ageing population. Mr Amis, who has a new novel out (see article), recently compared the growing army of the elderly to “an invasion of terrible immigrants, stinking out the restaurants and cafés and shops”. Mr Buckley devoted a novel, “Boomsday”, to the impending war of the generations. They have both touted the benefits of mass euthanasia, though Mr Amis favours giving volunteers “a martini and a medal” whereas Mr Buckley supports more sophisticated incentives such as tax breaks.