After the announcement of a National Insurance Contribution (NIC) hike to fund social care, many commentators have argued that Britain is a gerontocracy, the idea that public policy is geared to benefit the old over the young.

In a rebuttal op-ed for The Spectator, IEA Director of Communications, Annabel Denham, suggested that although the NIC hike was unfair on young workers, the young have not been let down by the government in the way critics claim. It is also unfair to generalise on the wealth and experience of an entire generation.

Annabel said: “For many older people (and their carers), the narrative of a well-off senior generation never having had it so good rings hollow. For a start, what is a ‘generation’? Millennials, Zoomers or Generation Alpha are not a homogenous group. We wouldn’t make the same sweeping generalisations about distinct groups with other immutable characteristics — women, ethnic minorities — as we do about the ‘boomers'”.

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