OAPS financing £10k windfall for young would increase sense of entitlement

“Healing the Generational Divide”? So went a headline at BBC Online on Tuesday in reference to The Resolution Foundation’s proposals to address “intergenerational unfairness”, increasing taxes on pensioners to fund a £10,000 windfall for all 25-year-olds’ being a notable highlight. My first thought was that the term “intergenerational unfairness” was just another divisive, illconceived concept designed to further demonise what used to be regarded as a vulnerable group in our society, older adults.

But then I thought about it (another undesirable trait that comes with ageing), and decided there may be something in this.

Is it fair, for instance, that people in the prime of their life take what they have not earned, from people who have spent most of their lifetime working to earn to help them cope with the difficulties of ageing in retirement? Some might call that immoral. shameful even. Or would this simply be the kind of legacy that would reinforce an already pervasive and growing sense of entitlement and victimhood in coming generations? How exactly will this “healthegenerationaldivide”?

Every generation faces difficulties and these naturally change as time passes. Life is hard. One might wish it wasn’t and one might think it shouldn’t be, but life does not care about that, and it will be hard regardless. Failure to embrace and accept this simple fact to at least a degree will result in a lifetime of dissatisfaction, resentment and discontent.

It’s not all bad, though, and one of life’s true blessings is that when you are young you have no real concept of what ageing will actually mean for you. You may think you do, but you don’t. You will learn though... eventually.

AUSTIN MCKENNA

Harvest Street Cornton, Stirling