INTERGENERATIONAL THEFT
The £15 Trillion UK Government Policy Bias That Makes Baby Boomers Undeservingly Rich By Stealing From Generation X, Gen Y (Millennials), Gen Z (Zoomers) & Future Generations
The revolutionary new book is now available to purchase on www.Amazon.co.uk
In the news: Intergenerational Foundation articles:
20/11/24 Vindication – London Mayor Sadiq Khan admits housing crisis is “creating intergenerational inequality like we’ve never seen before”
16/10/24 Budget 2024: Intergenerational unfairness, wealth inequality and low growth are interlinked
11/06/24 General Election: Intergenerational inequality is the elephant in the room, not debates about tax
16/05/24 Why ‘Broken Britain’ is a direct consequence of intergenerational inequality
27/02/24 Will the government address intergenerational inequality in this years budget?
29/11/23 Autumn statement 2023: Where is the intergenerational fairness?
Book overview
INTERGENERATIONAL THEFT is a groundbreaking new book that definitively proves the scale of the intergenerational injustice facing young people in the UK - and is the first economic analysis to precisely quantify the £15 Trillion problem.
Demolishing the false political and media narrative of continually rising living standards, the book’s robust evidenced-based approach conclusively proves that despite young people in the UK increasingly being employed in more highly skilled and graduate jobs, Generation X, Gen Y, and Gen Z have all progressively experienced a continuously falling standard of living compared to the baby boomer generation.
But what is even more shocking about this is that it's not down to bad luck, 'the market', 'globalisation' or economic misfortune.
No, it's actually the direct consequence of UK government policy which deliberately favours the economic interests of the older generation over the younger generation - and even more astonishingly, government actually admits this multi-trillion wealth transfer from young to old.
A spectacular step change
FACT: Pre-millennium, and over the entire post-war period 1945-2000, it was possible to afford an average home, and raise children on a single (mostly semi-skilled) income.
FACT: Post-millennium, over the period 2001-2022, to afford an average home, and raise children now requires three semi-skilled incomes, or two highly skilled (usually graduate) salaries.
But why has this happened?
Fundamentally, there are around 3 million 'extra' baby boomers (by definition), and to get their vote, UK government policy is deliberately biased towards favouring their economic interests.
And a 2015 UK Parliament Select Committee on Work and Pensions report titled "The Intergenerational Contract Under Strain" concluded that “The economy has become skewed in favour of baby boomers (born 1946-1964) and against millennials (born 1980 - 1995) . Unless governments adapt to these changed circumstances the intergenerational contract that underpins the welfare state is under threat.”
And the Committee's report even went on to quantify the magnitude of the problem: "The most recent UK Generational Accounts, published in 2011, estimated the intergenerational budget imbalance to be £7.6 trillion in aggregate terms. Future generations will, in effect, inherit net liabilities of just over five times annual GDP. The rise in tax revenue (or reduction in expenditure) needed to plug the gap would be around six per cent of GDP.”
The Committee went on to quantify the wealth transfer in individual terms: “The 2011 UK Generational Accounts set out future contributions and withdrawals by age group. Without any changes in policy, children currently aged 0–4 would on average contribute around £70,000 more in taxes than they enjoyed in services and benefits. People currently aged 65–69 would on average have a net withdrawal of more than £220,000 over the remainder of their lifetimes. In order to achieve fiscal balance by the end of today’s infants’ lifetimes, as yet unborn people would each need to contribute an average of £160,000 in net terms.”
In essence, because the baby boomers did not pay enough tax and have taken out much more in public services and pensions, this has left a massive hole in public finances resulting in a forced wealth transfer from young to old. In complete contrast, younger and working age people are being forced to make up this shortfall and will pay more tax in than the public services that they receive.
This is crystal clear evidence that the baby boomer generation are stealing from young and future generations.
Fundamentally, our economic system is run like a Ponzi scheme that transfers huge amounts of wealth from the young and working age people and transfers this wealth to the old.
However, the INTERGENERATIONAL THEFT goes beyond government finances.
Clear examples of intergenerational policy bias
• Housing: House prices are kept high to pander to the older homeowning majority
• Pensions: The triple lock on pensions saddles future generations with huge debts
• National debt: The accumulation of crippling national debt is being passed onto future generations
• Privatisations: The family silver has been sold off, squandered on tax cuts for the older generation
• PFI schemes: Poor value PFI schemes will burden future generations for decades to come
• Student fees: Saddles young people with unprecedented personal debt for decades
• North sea oil & gas: A one-off windfall squandered on tax cuts for the older generation
• Climate change: The old have passed on a monumental economic liability to the young
As the environmentalist George Monbiot rightly expressed -"The young people taking to the streets are right: their future is being stolen. The economy is an environmental pyramid scheme, dumping its liabilities on the young and the unborn. Its current growth depends on intergenerational theft"
The consequences are stark for the young and future generations
• Young people are having to use a range of adaptation strategies to cope
• All of life’s natural milestones are being delayed, deferred, or denied
• Dual income couples are effectively paying twice the taxes of previous generations - subsiding the old by at least £220,000 per person – but we estimate £500,000 per person if you include housing, student fees, and climate change
• The financial strain is severely impacting mental health, relationships, and family life
• Intergenerational injustice contributes to an increasingly unfair, and unmeritocratic society as wealth concentrates in the older haves vs. the younger have nots
• The young are gaslighted as though it is their fault with absurd claims about avocado on toast, mobile phones, and Netflix subscriptions, rather than admit the systemic failure
Profound societal implications
INTERGENERATIONAL THEFT is not just about economics: The evidence is clear that it is blighting the lives of a whole generation of young people and preventing them from reaching their natural life milestones and full potential. Ultimately, the selfish individualism championed by the baby boomer generation has harmed the prospects of their own children and grandchildren - assuming grandchildren are even affordable of course. No wonder birth rates are at record lows.
INTERGENERATIONAL THEFT is also having a deeply profound impact upon relationships and is destroying family life - assuming young people can even afford to have a family. Parents are increasingly tired, over worked, stressed, time poor, and overloaded - conditions not exactly conducive to a healthful happy environment to raise children.
INTERGENERATIONAL THEFT is also contributing to an increasingly unfair, unequal, fractured, polarised and unmeritocratic society. The house price boom and housing crisis concentrates wealth in the haves vs. the have nots. And increasingly it is the case that where you get to in life is not dependent upon hard work, effort or merit, but how much wealth your family has tied up in property, and the economic advantage that gives over others.
In short, any notion of a fair, equitable, or meritocratic society is breaking down.
And the consequences are very serioud. The book highlights the serious societal implications
of INTERGENERATIONAL THEFT which could potentially lead to the breakdown of the
intergenerational social contract which underpins the entire fabric of our society and civilisation.
Aims & objectives
This profound new book uses an analytical data-driven methodology that quantifies INTERGENERATIONAL THEFT within the UK at £15 Trillion.
The book concludes by suggesting radical solutions to the problem. To that end, INTERGENERATIONAL THEFT provides a definitive reference guide for young people to help re-frame the media narrative with the economic facts, refute the media & political agenda, recover what's been stolen from them, and to reclaim their futures.
www.intergenerationaltheft.org is dedicated to my son and his future.
