Is this crisis the beginning of a clash between generations?

Just this morning walking around the park on the farm where my mother lives in Sweden I stood on top of a cliff that is rumoured to be an “ättestupa”, one of those places where Swedes of ages ago were rumoured to have thrown themselves out when they felt they had become a burden for their children. I have always doubted this particular cliff as its relative low height has seemed more inclined to cause a broken foot, only aggravating the burden.

George Magnus writes the “Recession will compound looming issue of rapid ageing” November 6, and though he does have many valid points these are all from the perspective of those on the way out. In this respect we also must acknowledge the needs of those on the way in. This crisis might in fact just be the beginning of a clash between generations.

If you are a prosperous baby-boomer with plenty of assets, then you are indeed interested in keeping the prices of shares and housing growing, and, if just a baby-boomer, to keep your job. On the other hand if you are a young with nothing but future ahead of you, you would not mind seeing the lower prices that could allow you to acquire shares or your house at a reasonable price, or to have the elderly move over so as to get a decent job. I mean, who would like to start building a nest egg for the future with the Dow Jones over 14.000?

How to get someone else’s grandson to take care of you when you are old?

Sir, Michiyo Nakamoto reports “Japan requires age-old wisdom on problems of productivity” April 23, on how a country of saver “who have long been happy to keep the bulk of their wealth in bank deposits” now have to start looking for improved returns on their money in order to make ends meet in an ageing society with declining workforce.

This is just the beginning of some truly important intra-generational transfer challenges that have been surprisingly little studied, and planned for, and simply accepting more risks in order to get better returns does not really cut it as a sustainable solution to this problem. For instance the Japanese society might need to take an urgent look at issues such as the saving propensity of the coming generations in Japan and the rest of the world, since if those generations do not want to save as much as theirs, then with whom are they in the future to barter with their investments and savings against the cash they need. Could it even be that they could be better off by simply cashing in their investments today and holding the cash?

Needless to say this is a question that affects many countries and I can already see a young generation of nurses in developed countries asking and getting six figure incomes… or even much more if they restrict the competition with foreign nurses.