“Generational Equity” and the New Victim Blaming: An Emerging Public Policy Issue

Recent attempts to frame complex policy issues in terms of “justice between generations” and “intergenerational equity” are based on a series of questionable assumptions and economic calculations concerning the relative financial well-being of the elderly vis-à-vis other groups in U.S. society. On closer inspection, however, these assumptions—e.g., of a homogeneous and financially secure elderly population and of younger cohorts likely to become increasingly resentful of elderly entitlement programs—appear ill-founded.

Census data revealing wide disparities in income among the elderly, and national opinion poll data suggestive of a large cross-generational and cross-ethnic group “stake” in Social Security and Medicare, are used to suggest that the intergenerational equity framework may well be an inappropriate one in the public policy arena. Such a framework, moreover, is seen as deflecting attention from more basic inequities in U.S. society and from the need for major policy shifts in response to these more fundamental problems.