Ageism - of who?

Last weekend I was in Dublin to attend a national meeting of Labour Youth (why these meetings can never be held outside of the Pale I don't know, but that's another story).  We drove from Cork (in only two hours it has to be said) and took the Luas from the Red Cow park and ride facility to the city centre.  On the way in, I couldn't help but notice that on every stop there were posters highlighting the issue of ageism.  A worthy cause, no doubt.  The recent controversy over the pension levy on private pensions, as well as these posters, made me stop and think about the whole issue of ageing.  The more I thought about it, the more I realised that the public discourse on this issue is dominated by the question of looking after older people, and that another form of ageism is being obscured – the obstacles facing young people.

   Hear me out.  Young people are in an age group which is most at risk to a whole plethora of dangers, some social and some economic.  These include a much higher risk of depression and suicide, emigration, psychological disorders such as self-harming, bulimia and anorexia, unemployment (unemployment amongst young people is around 20% on the last count, against a national average of 14%), road deaths and STIs.  While some of these dangers are due to naiveté and ignorance (such as speeding or not using contraception), the vast chunk of them are due to wider societal and economic factors and attitudes.  There is no doubt that there are massive challenges for older people, and I do not seek to belittle these hardships.  However, I believe that at the moment in Ireland there is an attitude amongst some of the media and politicians, as well as the general public, which is entirely dismissive of young people and their talents.  This is the first generation of young people in decades which will have a worse standard of living than their parents.  Positive coverage of technological innovation or charity work amongst young people is overwhelmed by negative headlines concerning young hoodlums, unresponsible teenage mothers and excessive boozing (or sometimes all three together).  Of course all these stereotyped characters exist, but that is why a stereotype is a stereotype – they are rarely true.

  I believe the best time to be a teenager in Ireland was probably in the early noughties.  The Celtic Tiger was roaring, registration fees for third-level education were negligable and someone was spoiled for choice when it came to jobs.  Some Celtic Cubs even got cars and holidays for their birthdays as a matter of course.  During this time, the middle-aged professional classes were mortgaging their childrens' futures by buying second and third houses at highly-inflated prices.  These property gambles have now of course been proven to be reckless, and who is going to foot the bill through NAMA? The taxpayer, and more specifically, the younger generation.  While I'm sure that most middle class taxpayers bought homes in good faith, thinking that the price was only going to go higher, they must share a portion of the blame for the collapse.

   Evidently the blame (or even the majority of the blame) is not exclusive to mortgagees – the banks and politicians were the ones who fostered and encouraged this culture of greed and recklessness.  Ireland became a moral wasteland in which wealth and status were seemingly all that mattered to people.  What do all these major actors have in common?  They are all middle-aged.  Of course, this is nothing to be ashamed about.  But what really annoys me is that those in charge of our economy, and our wider society, seem to have forgetten to have empathy with those that are different to themselves – this includes the elderly, the poor and young people. 

  For example, the first cutbacks in the education sector were not aimed at those in administration or the highest earners - they were aimed at cutting the number of special-need teachers, as well as steadily raising the registration fee, so that now it is a tuition fee in all but name.  Grants for disadvantaged students have been slashed, and funding for worthwhile capital projects have been put on the long finger.  University presidents demand for third-level fees to be re-introduced, adding a further financial burden to already struggling students, while they themselves are pocketing six figure salaries, and in some cases, claiming six figure expenses.  The minimum wage was cut by 13% with the questionable objective of boosting employment, while all it would have done is further hammer the lowest-paid and students.  The moral hypocrisy amongst the elite in our republic absolutely stinks.

  So basically all I'm asking for is a public debate which is not sensationalist and looks to seriously assess who is being hurt most by this economic depression.  Most retirees have their mortgage payed off.  The state pension has doubled in the last ten years.  There is no doubt that elderly people are in danger of being overcome by financial worries, but in my opinion, no more so than any other age-group in the country.  Meanwhile, the retirement age for those under 50 was raised from 65 to 67, with it later rising further to 68 years of age.  While this change is vital because of increasing life expectancy and the state of the public finances, it is another measure which will hammer younger generations.  Indeed, the lack of coverage this measure received was surprising to me considering its importance in the future. 

   But of course, that is just the problem with Irish society at the minute.  We are only concerned about the here-and-now.  Guarantee all the toxic debts of the banks and leave it to the next generation to pay off this debt.  Slash the education budget and forget about the consequences.  It is this kind of short sightedness which has gotten us to this current predicament and an impulse we must shed in order to avoid another depression of this kind.  However I believe that if anyone can discard that viewpoint, this generation of young people can.