While your in-depth quantification of the economic betrayal of “generation Y (Millennials,8 March) is timely and welcome, setting it as an opposition between the young and pensioners is to miss the genuine issue. A cursory reading of Thomas Piketty’s Capital in the Twenty-First Century would lead one to expect such a transitional effect. As the balance of power between returns on capital and income shifted back towards the owners of wealth, and it disproportionately hit those entering work. It is easier to deny decent wages,job security and pensions to those joining than it is to steal them away from those who already occupy them.
That shift in power was orchestrated through state power, including trade union legislation, or the lifting of controls on capital movement,by governments. Shifting the focus from the super-rich, the beneficiaries of that political project, or to a generation fortunate in their time of birth is misleading. The civilised pensions will die with that generation,and the wealth in property of the middle classes will quickly dissipate as it is inherited down generations.
Rob Raeburn
BrightonContinue reading...
Source: theguardian.com