Writing an open letter to the Prime Minister and his fellow Taxpayers in England, the Archbishop has asked the Government to consider a new social covenant to protect the most vulnerable in society.
The Archbishop of York’s said: “A failing of today’s society is to set the old over and against the young, in a state of mutual incomprehension. In fact, the old need the young and the young, the old. An integration of the generations is critical to a mutually supportive society. The value we are seen to place on their wisdom and the concern we show for their care are important litmus tests of whether we can build a caring as well as a confident society in the 21st century.”
Part of the problem is that in America and the West, the old once they got their government paid pensions, abandoned society (who was paying for them). In previous generations, the old lived at home with or near their children, tutored and cared for grandchildren, pitched in, kept marriages together etc.
Now the old upon retirement move to golfcourse and seaside retirement communities, or drive around the united states in RVs with cute little signs saying “I’m spending my children’s inheritance.”
Nobody objects to supporting the old. Supporting healthy 65 year olds in their second adolescence is a different matter. It is obscene that children struggle in poverty, while government provides social security pensions to wealthy folks who spend their days playing.
Clueless, thank you for saying that. Like the grandparent I know who spent $60,000 on a new car she didn’t need, but didn’t help her daughter one iota when her son-in-law lost a job through no fault of his own, and there are several kids in that picture with special needs. Luckily the son-in-law found another job before the cash settlement ran out.
Or example #2, with both parents working full-time, their fingers to the bone, with three kids; one with special needs. Grandparents asked the family what they wanted for Christmas; Dad said, “Well, we could really use a new TV”. Grandparents hemmed and hawed about purchasing that(maybe a $750.00 item; modest equipment by today’s standards), eventually settling on the nonsense that they “didn’t have the money” for such a thing. But, there was money to go on a 3-week cruise to the Med, and Grandma came home with a 5-carat diamond.
Some of the GenXers and Yers are overly entitled, but the milk of human kindness has run out of a lot of the boomers and WWII babies. For today’s parents in the current economy, they’ve got all the empathy of a pet rock.