Why the young will not inherit the earth.
We all know the world is paying a heavy price for the damage caused by COVID-19, and there was a rather large bill to pay for the previous crisis. Between quantitative easing, fiscal stimulus and other government support, it is estimated that we will take on more than $100 trillion in debt to pay for the greatest collapse in our economy since the great depression, twice. The number is what it is, the question is: who is going to pay for it?
In one form or another, all the money that was spent must be paid back. Otherwise, there will be defaults on the biggest mountain of debt in the history of mankind, and that would lead to a total breakdown of the system, one that may very well bring upon a zombie apocalypse. Not surprisingly, no one is exactly stepping up and rushing to pull out their debit card.
Few politicians ever get re-elected after raising taxes, even fewer CEOs get compensated for falling earnings, and even less money managers or private investors like losing money. So, it has to be someone else. Someone who doesn’t know any better and who doesn’t understand what is going on. Most significantly, someone who will have no say at all in how this humongous burden of debt will get dumped upon their shoulders, in its entirety.
Those unfortunates who were born just after the turn of the millennium, are truly the modern-day version of the lost generation. Their pension funds, forced to buy long term government bonds yielding artificially suppressed low and even negative interest rates, are going to run out of money long before they could ever hope to retire. Their tax burden will be so high, it will hinder growth for a very long time, take away many opportunities and most chances of future prosperity. On top of everything else, we have also left Gen Z a rather large clean-up bill for all the damage we have done to the planet, to say nothing of the resources we depleted whilst running the world on borrowed time and money. Sorry eh, so long and thanks for all the fish (Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, 1984).