Janerik Larsson
I veckans utgåva av The Economist granskas den politiska prioriteringen i Storbritannien av de äldre framför kommande generationer:
Today’s pensioners will keep most of their benefits whoever wins in May (Labour would take freebies away from the richest 5%, saving a paltry £150m). A gravy-train is hard to stop when it is fuelled by votes.
By means-testing the state pension, it should bump up payments to poor pensioners and gradually withdraw them from the richest ones. Many oldies would feel aggrieved; the universal state pension has long been seen as a cornerstone of the welfare state. Yet money is short, and the scale of today’s redistribution from the poor to the rich is hard to defend. Moreover, reforming the pension could help preserve a more cherished cornerstone. Cutting the state pension bill by a fifth would save about £15 billion. That is about half the extra cash the National Health Service will soon require—if it is to meet the steeply rising demands of Britain’s greying population.
I svensk politik är det hittills knappast någon som vågar ta upp frågan trots att den rimligen borde attrahera åtminstone ungdomsförbunden.