The Pinch
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Product Description
Product Description
The baby boom of 1945-65 produced the biggest, richest generation that Britain has ever known. Today, at the peak of their power and wealth, baby boomers now run our country; by virtue of their sheer demographic power, they have fashioned the world around them in a way that meets all of their housing, healthcare and financial needs. In this original and provocative book, David Willetts shows how the baby boomer generation has attained this position at the expense of their children.Social, cultural and economic provision has been made for the reigning section of society, whilst the needs of the next generation have taken a back seat. Willetts argues that if our political, economic and cultural leaders do not begin to discharge their obligations to the future, the young people of today will be taxed more, work longer hours for less money, have lower social mobility and live in a degraded environment in order to pay for their parents' quality of life. Baby boomers, worried about the kind of world they are passing on to their children, are beginning to take note. However, whilst the imbalance in the quality of life between the generations is becoming more obvious, what is less certain is whether the older generation will be willing to make the sacrifices necessary for a more equal distribution. The Pinch is a landmark account of intergenerational relations in Britain. It is essential reading for parents and policymakers alike.
About the Author
David Willetts is the Minister of State for Universities and Science. He has been the Member of Parliament for Havant since 1992. He has worked at the Treasury, the Number 10 Policy Unit, the Centre for Policy Studies and served as Paymaster General in the last Conservative Government. He has served in the Shadow Cabinet for over a decade, with particular responsibility for education, work and pensions.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
23 of 27 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
How lucky my generation has been. Never called up to fight a major war. A student-loan-free education. An indomitable feeling that we can do anything. A generation approaching oldie-ship that will look different, act atypically and feel unconventionally about ourselves. No lawn bowls for us, or fawn windcheaters, or sensible shoes (unless we choose to wear them with a sense of post-modern irony, of course...). Heli-skiing at 73 - why not?
In a characteristically scholarly but lucidly readable fashion, Willetts provides a sociological, economic and demographic grand tour of a generation that has amassed great wealth and power and, he postulates, pulled up the drawbridge behind it. Reading it as a BB evokes pride and guilt in equal measures, but Willetts, a baby-boomer himself, stresses that this is not a book attacking his generation, but merely asking it to use its power wisely and fairly.
As a financial planner I deal with many made-it-big-time baby boomers, but watch with dread the younger cohorts sleepwalking into great poverty in old age. Many start life in debt; often have a misplaced obsession with property (Willetts cites research that suggests our decisions about what to invest in are shaped for several decades by the types of assets that were booming in our youth), and even their bosses, whose own pension planning might have been derailed by reductions in tax-relief for the better-off, may no longer feel quite so inclined to encourage their younger staff to save prudently for their later years.
I related strongly to Willetts' idea of baby boomers who were allowed to be 'free-range children', and that the social contract between parents and children is less trusting these days, for reasons I still don't fully comprehend, even as a father. Many children of that generation, this reviewer included, spent their days playing freely in the fields/bomb sites/streets - sans mobile phone or GPS kiddie-tracker or bicycle helmet - turning up muddy, grazed, but happy, for afternoon tea. We took risks, made mistakes and got messy, but, equally, so did our parents in allowing us the freedom of spirit that now seems to be emblematic of the generation.
So read this book - if you're not a BB, try to understand that although we're not an evil generation, we certainly got lucky, without necessarily realising it. If you are a BB, heed Willetts' words - that your children are the ones who might eventually choose your care home...
In a characteristically scholarly but lucidly readable fashion, Willetts provides a sociological, economic and demographic grand tour of a generation that has amassed great wealth and power and, he postulates, pulled up the drawbridge behind it. Reading it as a BB evokes pride and guilt in equal measures, but Willetts, a baby-boomer himself, stresses that this is not a book attacking his generation, but merely asking it to use its power wisely and fairly.
As a financial planner I deal with many made-it-big-time baby boomers, but watch with dread the younger cohorts sleepwalking into great poverty in old age. Many start life in debt; often have a misplaced obsession with property (Willetts cites research that suggests our decisions about what to invest in are shaped for several decades by the types of assets that were booming in our youth), and even their bosses, whose own pension planning might have been derailed by reductions in tax-relief for the better-off, may no longer feel quite so inclined to encourage their younger staff to save prudently for their later years.
I related strongly to Willetts' idea of baby boomers who were allowed to be 'free-range children', and that the social contract between parents and children is less trusting these days, for reasons I still don't fully comprehend, even as a father. Many children of that generation, this reviewer included, spent their days playing freely in the fields/bomb sites/streets - sans mobile phone or GPS kiddie-tracker or bicycle helmet - turning up muddy, grazed, but happy, for afternoon tea. We took risks, made mistakes and got messy, but, equally, so did our parents in allowing us the freedom of spirit that now seems to be emblematic of the generation.
So read this book - if you're not a BB, try to understand that although we're not an evil generation, we certainly got lucky, without necessarily realising it. If you are a BB, heed Willetts' words - that your children are the ones who might eventually choose your care home...
35 of 43 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
David Willetts has been talking about the generation war for a while, and now has put down his thoughts in this highly engaging book. He might be a politician, but his book is both well written and very non-party political. It is full of enticing, and illuminating insights - for example, that Britain has had small nuclear families rather than large extended ones for the past millennium; that sex was discovered before the 1963 and the pill - but as a result an astonishingly high proportion (one quarter from memory) of young brides were pregnant. The central thesis - that the whole economic and social system is geared to the interests of baby boomers born between 1945 and 1965, and those who come afterwards are disadvantaged as a result - is not just convincing, but politically salient. The baby boomers have won the tug of war with their children, with the result that they had free university education, while their children didn't; lower taxes; lower government debt; lower house prices. The post-baby boomers will struggle as they pay off the debts of their parents living beyond their means as though there would be no tomorrow (at least for them). The problem is the solution - although the grey generation need to pay their way more to lessen the burdens on the young, which government is going to risk the wrath of precisely the generation which is the most diligent about going to the polling booths? I think the generations may be warring for some time to come.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
A very interesting and thought-provoking read. It is however hard to reconcile the author's views here with his actions in government as Minister of State for Universities!
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Populist Garbage from a dolt who can't change a lightbulb.
The Pinch and the other books from David Willets are just recycled regurgitated nonsence he picked up from his Politics, Philosophy and Economics degree. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Mr. K. Breslin
Cucumber
Dr Johnson said of cucumber that, after elaborate dressing, it should be discarded as worth nothing. And so with Willett's premise and argument. Read more
Published 10 months ago by M.I.
Shoddy analysis leading to an incorrect predetermined conclusion
If this book had been advertised as a description of the importance of inter-generational cooperation, accompanied by useful social statistics, I would have given it more stars. Read more
Published 10 months ago by Barry C. Pearson
Benaut
A fascinating read but never has the saying " a picture tells a thousand words" been more true. The arguements are statistically based and are often difficult to follow but there's... Read more
Published 14 months ago by S. R. Munro
Too expensive
Love to read this on Kindle, but the publishers are having a laff if they think I'll buy an ebook at that price.
Published 15 months ago by Mr. K. Smith
The Pinch: How the baby boomers took their children's future
I bought this book thinking that it would give me an inside into my own generation and how "the grey pound" was being used at the expense of younger generations. Read more
Published 18 months ago by Mr. Philip Woolley
Excellent and non judgmental
Details on the facts, not so much pointing the finger of blame, but still identifying how the boomers have let us all down.
Published 21 months ago by Gary Frost
A wide-ranging review of the likely impact of the 1950/60s baby boom...
An excellent read for anyone interested in getting behind shallow press coverage and political rhetoric on social issues, and into the detail of how best to run the country in the... Read more
Published on 30 May 2010 by Richard Murphy
Fascinating read
This is an excellent analysis of one of the most pressing social and economic questions in Britain today - how to maintain the gains of the baby boomers from an age of prosperity... Read more
Published on 5 May 2010 by P. A. Snowdon
Cutting to the heart of inter-generational discord.
Inter-generational cooperation is disappearing from British society, and the young and old are at greater odds with each other than at any time since the Second World War. Read more
Published on 18 April 2010 by Mr. Adam G. White
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