The “midlife crisis” of Generation X or the Millennials, could be piece of cake when compared to what seems to await for them down the years.

Tim Harford, making reference to a new research paper from Angus Deaton, Nobel laureate in economics, argues that “people who would have their wellbeing most improved by a cash injection are the middle-aged, people between their forties and their sixties.” “A monetary remedy for the midlife crisis” March 31.

It is a fun argument for Harford to use when “I will have a word with my father and my children”.

But what would Harford say if the answer he got from his children was: “Daddy, in terms of where you find yourself in your lifecycle, you are the one living most over your means… so no cash for you… spend less… save more (so that you might leave some to us as your father left to you)… and for God’s sake get rid of those risk weighted capital requirements for banks that hurt us so much.”

That mentioned piece of regulation, by favoring banks to finance the present safer consumption over the “riskier” future production, has already placed a reverse mortgage on the current economy, which is jeopardizing everyone’s future.

And also, since it amounts to a gross violation of Edmund Burke’s holy intergenerational contract, I would suggest Harford and his generation begin to prepare a very good defense speech for when they will have to respond to their children why they allowed that to happen.

And Harford, as a retiree, or at least his generation of retirees, will also suffer because, as I have argued so many times, there is no better pension plan than having children who love you and are able to work in a reasonable healthy economy.

Sir, my grandchildren will at least know how much their grandfather, obsessively, fought against that crazy risk aversion. Will yours?

PS. If you dare to see how the elderly could so unexpectedly for them be suffering horrors, have a look at what is happening in Venezuela.