Investing in Youth: Capital Endowments and Contingent Loans

As part of the series begun in this issue on potential intergenerational solidarity and conflict, Julien Damon outlines the idea of capital endowments which could be made to very young adults to offer opportunities to everyone in society. This is about investing in youth while combatting underlying social inequalities: moving from redistribution, as practiced retrospectively today, to ‘pre-distribution’ that would enable young people to finance their studies, embark upon a career etc. Julien Damon reminds us how this idea emerged and has even begun to find application: he stresses the benefits of such an investment in human capital, without shying away from the issues and questions that may arise. Lastly, he presents another alternative along the same lines: the contingent loan. These are so many mechanisms which, in the same spirit as the ‘universal basic income’, represent major areas of thinking on future policies for dealing with the current crisis.