Australia is in the midst of war. A fight to the death. The stakes are high: which generation has had it the worst? Depends on who you ask.
The evidence is clear, however. Australia has a problem with intergenerational inequality, and it’s not going away. More troubling, there doesn’t appear to be any motivation to redress it.
Enormous progress has occurred in this country, especially in postwar decades.
We’re living longer, child rights are recognised and protected, modern social security provides essential support, and education is at an all-time high. Gender equality is improving, people with disability have greater social access, and First Nations Australians are finally starting to be recognised via a move to have a voice to parliament. There’s much to celebrate.
Australia’s backdrop of immense progress makes growing inequality between generations an even more shocking shame.
There’s so much more to be done, especially if the generational bargain to increase living standards across generations is to be met.
While generations are fighting it out, we’re masterly distracted from the realities of intergenerational inequalities. Our distraction is blinding us to the job at hand. Living standards in Australia are going backwards, and it’s the young and not yet born set to suffer the most.
The generational bargain has been corrupted.
Support from the working population, via taxation and other transfers, to children and older people no longer ensures generational improvements in living standards. Instead, wealth is becoming more concentrated among older Australians. Perverse, politically strategic policies are to blame.
Housing and wages are two indicators of generational difficulties confronting young people.
From generation to generation homeownership rates have slipped away since the baby boom of 1946-1964, as fewer and fewer young people achieve the quintessentially Australian dream of homeownership. Young adults with children have experienced the greatest declines in homeownership rates. It’s not surprising that as homeownership has become so further out of reach young people have simply given up on secure housing.
Opportunities for life such as good health outcomes and family are just some of the fundamental things affected by the absence of secure housing.
While interest rates are historically low, deposits and incomes required to service home loans are much bigger in contemporary Australia. Dual-income families are now a necessity, and for many family aspirations have become unachievable.
The pressures faced by young people are enormous. Aside from the age-related stresses of adulthood, younger people are confronted by a climate catastrophe not of their making but their responsibility to solve.
Policy settings tend to favour older generations, this is after all where votes have typically concentrated in recent times. Young Australians are fighting an unfair battle.
Inequality is becoming more entrenched in modern Australia. The gulf between the haves and have-nots is increasing, and inequality is becoming more wickedly resistant to change. The trench of inequality is bigger and more Australians are being sucked into the void. This is entirely of our making; it’s also within our gift to change.
Individuals are blamed in discussions of inequality: choices, spending behaviours and lifestyles tend to be problematised among young adults. Public discourse is framed as a dichotomy of lifters and leaners. The reality couldn’t be further from this folklore fairytale.
Social mobility in Australia is rare. The socioeconomic circumstances of birth determine lifelong opportunities for Australians. Education, employment, income and health are linked to our early life.
It’s not a matter of just getting a better job. Young Australians are the most qualified in our history, with postgraduate qualifications a must for many entry-level jobs.
Australia has a systemic problem with inequality; it’s policy-driven.
The rich are getting richer and sharing their wealth and privilege with their children, increasing intra-generational inequality.
Take heart, generational warfare isn’t new. Generations have been stereotyped for their relative selfishness for as long as time itself. Young adults, no matter their generation, are called out for their narcissism. Baby boomers were famously cast as the Me generation in the 1970s, and every big generation since has been called some variation of the Me generation.
There’s no me in generation; we as a society put demographics at the fore through policies that appeal to what is politically advantageous. It’s time we choose equality.
Redressing inequality doesn’t involve taking away from the haves and redistributing wealth among the have-nots. Equality is about promoting wellbeing, and removing the perverse structures (like policy) that favour some over others. Wellbeing, just like inequality, isn’t finite.
Enough fighting the war of the worsts.
Time to mobilise and make a difference: let’s fight intergenerational inequality together by ensuring Australia’s future living standards are safeguarded. We all stand to benefit.
If the kids aren’t OK, then none of us are.
Dr Liz Allen is a demographer at the ANU Centre for Social Research and Methods
