Introduction

Central to the whole age discrimination debate is the question of the ‘just’ allocation of resources between generations and age-groups. If substantial negative discrimination against old people exists, it follows that it must be possible to detect many examples of positive discrimination in favour of the middle-aged and young. There will be, at any one time, an unequal distribution of resources and opportunities by age.

However, such a view needs careful examination. Two immediate points must be made. The first has been mentioned in the previous chapter: social policy is, at any one time, an intriguingly complex amalgam of both positive and negative discriminations towards particular age-groups. One example will suffice. Throughout history, welfare discourses and policies have been most punitive against those who possess the greatest future labour market value, with the most demonised groups being young, allegedly workshy males and young, ‘reproductively deviant’ females. The notionally moral categories of ‘deserving’ and ‘undeserving’ have always reflected labour market value. Such was the case under the Elizabethan Poor Law, and little has changed today: for example, modern ‘underclass’ discourses have tended to focus on the working-aged, specifically excluding older people. Yet this classification of the retired as axiomatically ‘deserving’ has been accompanied by explicit human capital reasoning that they are not worthy of public investment, since their life expectancy is short. Such reasoning has always permeated discussions of state pensions and retirement.