David Willetts

A neglected aspect of social justice is fairness between successive generations. This article argues that the large generation born immediately after World War 2 (the ‘baby boomers’) have benefitted from a favourable macro-economic environment throughout their lives, while the relatively small generation following them will bear the brunt of paying for the pensions and healthcare of their predecessors. Such extreme differences in the benefits and burdens of different generations over their lifecycles may need to be ameliorated in order to avoid a breakdown in the informal intergenerational social contract, which has sustained support for the welfare state over several decades. (This is a cleaned up transcript of a talk given to the Centre for Social Justice, and reprinted in the June 2007 issue of ‘Benefits: The Journal of Poverty and Social Justice’).

David Willetts delivered a presentation entitled ‘The State of Schools’ as part of the Policy Review’s mid-term report.