‘Some kids win the lottery at birth; far too many don't, and most people have a hard time catching up over the rest of their lives. Children raised in disadvantaged environments are not only much less likely to succeed in school or in society, but they are also much less likely to be healthy adults,’
James Heckman
In contrast with old men whose attention seems to be wholly absorbed with short-term issues such as conflict, fossil fuels and concentration of wealth and power, we will be concentrating on the needs and interests of future generations: both in this commentary and during much of the year ahead.
A key staging point during the first half of the year will be a two-day conference on inter-generational rebalancing organised by Share Alliance and the Cambridge University Economics Department, which will be held at the Institute for Fiscal Studies on 14th and 15th May. The keynote speaker on the first, academic, day will be Nobel Prize-winning economist Professor James Heckman, whose quotation opens this commentary. The second day will see discussions on policy issues, and David Willetts will be a keynote speaker on that day.
The conference, whose context will be both national and global, will address the logic of using the human life cycle to empower young people from disadvantaged backgrounds (what we’ve referred to as ‘The Black Hole of Economics’), enabling an attitudinal transformation for young people by the provision of starter capital accounts and incentivised learning, and it will put forward potential solutions for tackling the substantial challenge of advanced technology for young people’s employment opportunities.
If you would like to register your interest in potential attendance at the conference, or to be more actively involved with progress towards inter-generational rebalancing, please visit the Share Alliance ‘Save the Date’ registration of interest page.
The reality of difficult experiences in the past can easily be obscured by nostalgia, and disenchantment with the future can further amplify our very human tendency to discount its significance. This is notwithstanding the fact that we now wield more influence on that future than at any time in human history. Shifting the dial from looking backwards to plan a brighter future for all is something everyone should be turning their minds to.
What are the issues that drag us back to the past with those rose-tinted spectacles? Last week in the BBC ‘Radical’ podcast Amol Rajan interviewed Louisa Munch of Warwick University on the subject of knowledge and nostalgia. They discussed her thoughts on the class divide and on the way that far-right politicians use nostalgia to conjure up a yearning for years gone by. It's well worth a listen.
It's easy to see how, right across society, memories of the past can provide a compelling contrast with the challenges of an unknown future. Politicians then mix in a generous helping of charisma, and the combination fosters swift growth in their popularity.
It's certainly taken hold in the United States for Donald Trump’s ‘Make America Great Again’ campaign, and ‘Take Back Control’ was a key driver for Brexit; all the signs now point to a similar impact for Nigel Farage in the United Kingdom in the forthcoming May elections. However, it's not limited to far-right politicians in western democracies: on 21st March 2022, shortly after Putin's invasion of Ukraine, our commentary drew attention to the impact of charisma in Russia, which combined with what Louisa Munch described as Putin’s mythical texts about its imperial past. Meanwhile, the early years of National Socialism in Germany may well have used that same toxic mix of nostalgia and charisma in order to build widespread support for ‘Deutschland über alles’.
But the future needs to foster individual empowerment for future generations, not to condemn them to lives of subservience. This requires a recognition that we are all different, and should be respected for those differences; and young people should be encouraged to contribute towards taking individual responsibility for a better future — and that responsibility needs to rest on participation, a sense of ownership.
Among his various comments about Greenland last week, Donald Trump made the reflection that ownership is essential to taking responsibility; he contrasted it with the ineffectual experience of leasehold. This comment, of course, follows his long career in property, and he has plenty of first-hand experience there to help understand the link between ownership and responsibility.
That link is also essential for young people; however, the ability for young people to build that sense of ownership is seriously handicapped by a wide range of barriers to which we have so often referred in these commentaries. These include technology and automation, with their significant impact on youth unemployment and high asset prices, huge variations in birth rates across socio-economic divides, and the widespread absence of any benefit from inheritance.
If we don't start to value the need for a sense of ownership across young generations, we are therefore likely to see a future where their sense of responsibility is under increasing strain. This will not be in anyone's interest.
But the real tragedy will be the withholding of resources and life skills, which will deny these young people's ability to achieve their potential in adult life: thereby leaving a society even more fractured between the ‘haves’ and ‘have-nots’.
Throughout human history substantial opportunities for industrial progress, geographical expansion and social change, together with the lack of global oversight, have largely stood in the way of a call for inter-generational rebalancing. We now live in a significantly more mature state in terms of population (albeit flexing significantly due to migration), technological advancement and experience with different political options; the logic for recognising this need is even stronger.
Let's hope that Share Alliance’s conference in May will help to make a significant move in that direction.
Gavin Oldham OBE
Share Radio