Looking for motivation
Last weekend I watched Children of Men for the first time.
It's a great film, which shows humanity on the brink of
extinction - the year is 2027, the human race is infertile and the
youngest person is 18 years old. What follows is the slow decline
of society: what's the point in providing a sustainable future
when there's no generation to follow in your footsteps?
Identity cards are in, martial law exists to maintain control, and
groups of people live in ghettos. Not the prettiest picture for us
to look forward to and it raised the question of how you motivate
yourself to work, save, recycle, and live a healthy lifestyle.
Are we starting to see that same lack of motivation creep into
society today? Potential voters seem to be largely apathetic and
people are worried about debt and the effects it will have on the
future prospects for housing, jobs, and the provision of healthcare
and pensions.
Sticking with pensions, on Monday the Office for National
Statistics announced that a state pension will at best provide a
modest income, and campaigners are arguing that it is worth less
than when pensions started 100
years ago.
By the year 2044 anyone born on April 6, 1978 or later will not
have a state pension until they are 68.
So, people born from the late seventies onwards will have a longer
working life, with a smaller pension (assuming the funding for
pensions still exists by then!).
And despite this the Inland Revenue sends graduates, which are
largely in this generation, a letter at the end of their degree
asking them to top up their National Insurance (NI) contribution
(to make up for the shortfall in contributions over their course).
Now, I believe that we should all contribute to society by paying
our taxes and voting, etc. but I think it's a bit cheeky to
expect people to pay a couple of hundred pounds into their NI
contribution for their pension, which will probably be worth very
little in fifty years time, what with everyone living for longer.
I should probably set up a private pension but I just can't
find the motivation…
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