Moral Maze - 31/03/2010

Are the Baby Boomers the most selfish generation history has ever known? The 11 million children of the post-war baby boom are marching towards retirement. There are more over 60s than under 16s and their numbers and the demands they make on our society and how we're going to pay for them are questions we're only just starting to confront. They've grown up with all the benefits of the welfare state and NHS, made a profit on their homes and have good company pensions. Should they have used their demographic good fortune to build for the future, rather than leaving the next generation to pick up the tab? There used to be a contract between the generations - a moral duty, that we'd leave the world a better place for our children, that they'll live better lives than us. Edmund Burke's described a nation is "a partnership not only between those who are living, but between those who are living, those who are dead, and those who are to be born". But what's the baby boomers' legacy to the next generation? Climate meltdown, a wrecked economy and very large bill in the post. Do we have a moral obligation to the next generation and if so, what is it?