Letters | 7 April 2012

Generation wars

Sir: Viva Carol Sarler (‘Battle of the generations’, 31 March)! I don’t think I’ve ever read anything as ridiculous as Daniel Knowles’s babblings, which merit a strong riposte. It is galling to read a 24-year-old simplistically categorise all of we ‘baby-boomers’ (I was born in 1946) as the people responsible for today’s economic woes. Yes, a minuscule number of my generation are indeed responsible for much of the greed and selfishness which manifested itself in banking and government, but I am tired of the lame drivel which lays wholesale blame for our troubles at the doors of everyone in their middle sixties.
Mr Knowles needs to be reminded that millions of my generation made enormous sacrifices (in a good many instances placing their lives on the line in places such as the Falklands) as we grew up, and thus find it somewhat arrogant for a chap with so little experience of life to decree we should ‘pay up’ when we have been paying more than our share throughout our working lives.