The emerging intergenerational conflict

Bruno Palier (1)

1 CEE - Centre d'études européennes et de politique comparée (Sciences Po, CNRS)

As the OECD points out, the risk of poverty for older people has fallen, while poverty of young adults and families with children has risen. Those worst hit are children (born in work-poor families), unskilled young people, especially women, single mothers and migrants. Moreover, during the crisis, the elderly, the pensioners are faring much better than the young. Yet, despite these changes in the distribution of poverty and life chances, the redistributive structure of our welfare states has not changed. Worse, it has increasingly concentrated its expenditure on the elderly. At the heart of the problem lies the fact that public spending on healthcare and pensions, which primarily benefit the elderly, is disproportionately higher than spending on childcare, education and training, which by nature are geared more towards younger generations.

Domaines: Science politique

Bruno Palier. The emerging intergenerational conflict. Policy Network, 2014, pp.1-4. ⟨hal-01025147⟩