David Willetts, one time minister of state for universities and science turned chief spokesperson for baby boomer self-flagellation, is clearly troubled by the year of his birth. Since his 2010 book, The Pinch: How the baby boomers took their children’s future and why they should give it back, he’s been desperately seeking atonement for the privileges that happy date accrued. Now, thanks to a report from the Resolution Foundation, we know the precise cost of easing Willetts’s conscience: £10,000 – to be made payable to every 25 year old.
A cheque for £10,000 landing on the doormat will no doubt make hitting the quarter of a century milestone a little sweeter for Britain’s put-upon millennials. But the assumptions of the report’s authors, the Intergenerational Commission led by Willetts, may well leave a bitter aftertaste.
The Commission argues that mutual bonds tying the generations together are under threat because today’s young adults are considered unlikely to enjoy the same prosperity and social mobility as their parents or grandparents.
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