Angus Hanton sees happiness as a valuable benefit of intergenerational sharing It is becoming fashionable to consider measures of happiness in formulating policy, but the essential pattern of happiness is well known.
Category: Blog
“Natural Wastage” and its intergenerational impact
Angus Hanton argues that using “natural wastage” as a policy for staff reduction has a negative impact on youth employment A classic insider/outsider problem arises when a firm or government department needs to sack people. Okay, “sacking” is too brutal – they need to “reduce headcount” or even to “re-engineer the workforce”.
Care home crisis: the shape of things to come
Antony Mason looks at why the long-term care of the elderly is now causing serious concern Not one, not two, not three but FOUR major news items this past week have drawn attention to the impending crisis in the long-term care of the elderly.
Universities: 2012 looms
Antony Mason foresees chaos in the UK university system With the current summer round of AS and A level exams in full swing, the university entry year beginning September/October 2012 now appears clearly on the horizon. And there is every reason to fear that the university system as we know it is on the verge… Read more »
Is Italy heading for an intergenerational crisis?
Antony Mason notes that the intergenerational debate is hotting up in Italy, and asks if Italians have even greater reasons to be worried Last Sunday (22 May) the respected Italian TV programme Report (the equivalent the UK’s Panorama) broadcast an investigation on Rai 3 entitled Generazione a Perdere, making a convincing case that Italy’s young… Read more »
“Goal Posts or Graves?”
Liz Emerson follows a recent report on the crisis in burial grounds to its logical intergenerational conclusion Janice Turner wrote an interesting article in the Saturday Times this past weekend (21 May 2011) on another battle between the generations – this time between the living and the dead.
Will You Look After Your Own?
Liz Emerson asks who will pay for the growing burden of an ageing population The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development announced last week (18 May 2011) that the cost of caring for the elderly could treble by 2050. The body, which represents the most industrialised nations, estimates that 10% of people in OECD countries… Read more »
Was the AV vote an intergenerational issue?
Antony Mason suggests that younger generations risk a relentless erosion of their voter power No exit polls were taken at the Referendum on the Alternative Vote (AV), so it is impossible to say quite how the vote went in terms of age bands. However, pre-Referendum polls suggested a strong bias among younger voters towards a… Read more »
Dementia? Let’s go to Easter Island! – Planning for long-term care
Antony Mason responds to the recent announcement about long-term care for the elderly It has taken the Law Commission to reignite the debate about long-term care of the elderly. The current provision of social care is so inconsistent and chaotic that the elderly and the infirm (and their carers), in desperate need of support, have had… Read more »
When would you like to have been born? An intergenerational thought experiment
Angus Hanton suggests a subtle way to winkle out intergenerational attitudes One way of exploring our attitude to intergenerational fairness is to answer a theoretical and imaginary question. The question is, “If you could go outside time and relive your life again and choose when to be born, in which year would you choose to be born… Read more »