Baby boomers risk youth revolt

London: Young Britons may emigrate or withhold taxes if they are asked to pay the bills in an age of austerity while an affluent older generation hoards the rewards of a more prosperous time, a government minister told Reuters.

"The danger is that young people will say: ‘Why hang around in this place?'" Universities and Science Minister David Willetts said in an interview.

Willetts is the author of a book, The Pinch, which argues that "baby boomers" born in Britain between 1945 and 1965 enjoyed a remarkable run of economic good fortune but failed to share their prosperity with succeeding generations.

He warns that today's young may in turn shun their responsibility to look after the baby boomers as they move into retirement and old age.

"There will come a point when the younger generation, who will be the workers, who will be the taxpayers, will in some way or other refuse to transfer the annual GDP to the older generation," said Willetts.

"It could be a tax revolt, it could be emigration, it could be inflation," said Willetts, who is 54 and has two children.

"It could be a simple underperformance of companies who are unable to meet the size of pension promises they have made, through more of the money going in pay demands of the current workers and less going to plug pension funds."

Power to the young

"But through some mechanism or other there will come a point when the power will be with the younger generation and as we are unfair to them now, they may not be fair to us in future."

The Pinch was published shortly before a coalition of Conservatives and Liberal Democrats came to power in May, ousting a Labour government Willetts blames for allowing a housing boom to fuel a glut of borrowing by the baby boomers.

Willett says that binge, which pushed British net savings rates far below German, French and American levels, was in effect the baby boomers "spending the kids' inheritance."