Jobs, wages, housing: young people are paying a price. We have to address this or risk their anger boiling over
The pandemic’s next effect might be a wave of political conflict. A rising tide of anger among young people at what they have willingly sacrificed for older people emerges in a major survey across 12 European countries. It has split the continent along old faultlines – rich versus poor zones, north and west versus south and east – dividing people between those strongly affected and those barely touched. But most starkly the rift falls between generations: two-thirds of over-60s have done relatively well, while two-thirds of under-30s feel their opportunities have been cruelly truncated. Their trust in governments has fallen perilously.
One “warning” is a repeat of the 1968 youthquake: some of us who were there might think that’s long overdue. Mark Leonard, director of the European Council on Foreign Relations, which produced the survey, says young people “feel like those who fought in wars. They complied, they obeyed to save parents and grandparents, yet they are the long-term victims.” Damage to their jobs, education and life chances will possibly scar that generation permanently.