Skip to content

Attitudes and Acrimony

Attitudes and Acrimony Across the Generations

We all know about the attitudes some younger people have towards elders—who hasn’t felt the frustration of being ignored by servers in a restaurant, or the sting of being spoken to in a condescending manner.   A few weeacrimonyks ago, I took a few minutes longer than was considered appropriate in vacating a parking spot, and was treated to body language which far exceeded the eye-rolling variety. Underneath that behavior, we know, is a barely disguised attitude among some younger people that old people are doddering and slow, and possibly not worthy of the space they occupy.

But what about the attitudes elders hold about young people? The generation gap, a phrase thought to have originated with Robert Graves, in Goodbye to All That, was invented years ago, and in many circumstances, still holds true.  People who are many years apart may not always view each other with kindness and understanding. Currently in Britain, where the younger generation is struggling with a crisis in job loss and housing, a battle between generations appears to be brewing.

Bobby Duffy, who leads Ipsos MORI’s 17 year-study on the generations comments,

“There is a lot of concern about generational issues in politics now, [It’s] mostly about the baby boomers cleaning up while generation Y gets stuffed, but what is just as important is how the values and attitudes of the rising cohort differ from those of a prewar generation, whom the youngsters are replacing as they die off. The two groups have different views on almost any public policy question you can name,  from the death penalty to women’s rights and the monarchy.”

In Britain currently, the younger generation appears to be embroiled in anger and recrimination toward the generations preceding it, who they say have ruined economic prospects for them.  While the pre-war generation (The Lucky Few) may hold damning views about the younger group (Generation Y) over some issues, they are surprisingly sympathetic and concerned about their well-being, as reflected in another report in this far-reaching study:

“Research by Ipsos-MORI, based on the British Social Attitudes survey, has compared four cohorts of Britons (prewar, baby boomers, generation X and its successor, generation Y) against each other. Their findings show the prewar generation – perhaps remembering a world before such institutions existed or remembering the war that shaped them – strongly supportive of the NHS and welfare state.”

Another reference to the Ipsos-MORI report yields the following  significant finding, which reveals an important concern of the pre-war generation:

” Among the most striking examples of a yawning gap between the generations was their respective responses to the claim that “the government should spend more money on welfare benefits for the poor, even if it leads to higher taxes” – a signifier for the principle of redistribution, support for which has fallen among all generations over the past 20 or so years. Here, though, is the remarkable thing: whereas around 40% of those born in 1945 or before still agree, the numbers tumble as you move down the age range, reaching around half that figure among those aged 33 and under. Similarly, among Gen Y, the claim that “the creation of the welfare state is one of Britain’s proudest achievements” is now supported by around 20% of people; when it comes to the prewar cohort, the figure always hovered at around 70%.”

Britain is not alone in its concern about this generational divide. A new study by the Grattan Institute  on the wealth of Australians across generations reports,

“Whenever younger generations are discussed in the media, invariably comments will be made that Generation Y are unemployable, lazy, spendthrifts who need to learn discipline if they want to get ahead.”

In the The Wealth of Generations, the Grattan Institute suggests that one aspect of Generation Y is different from previous ones – they are on track to have less wealth than the generation before them.

“The report makes it abundantly clear that the good economic times of the late 1990s and early 2000s were of benefit mostly to older Australians, and such people “are capturing a growing share of Australia’s wealth, while the wealth of younger Australians has stagnated”.

This is an important issue, and I will return to it again and again as I explore its implications for the future of society. As members of a generation that founded the social safety net that has served the western world for the past 60 years, you may observe its unravelling with alarm.  I would like to hear your thoughts on this.

The generational groupings used by the Ipsos MORI researchers were:

Prewar

Anyone born in 1944 or earlier, who was at least alive for some of the second world war and is likely to have at least childhood memories of the war, the rationing that continued long after it, and the birth of the UK’s welfare state.

Generation Y

For Ipsos MORI, Gen Y-ers are those born between 1980 and 1992 (since those under 18 aren’t polled). Born under Thatcher or John Major, and becoming politically aware in the Blair era, this is a generation born into economic good times, only to be hurled into global economic meltdown in the first years of their careers.

© 2024 Diane Dahli All Rights Reserved | WordPress site by Quadra Street Designs