The Health Crisis and Intergenerational Inequality

In the series begun in this issue on intergenerational inequality, Hippolyte d’Albis’s article shows, in contrast to André Masson’s analysis, how life has continued to improve for French people generation on generation. On the other hand, the inequalities within the generations are increasing appreciably. Let us not, he writes, misuse the expression ‘a lost generation’ which is traditionally reserved for wars and the like: in terms of income, life expectancy and educational level, the young have a distinct advantage over their elders. Moreover, they enjoy levels of public and private transfer payments broadly equivalent to those of seniors. And, like all generations, they will see their disposable income grow at all ages. On the other hand, there are growing inequalities between young people, depending on whether they are skilled or unskilled, and thus have differing exposure to the risk of unemployment.