Many get rightly angry about the money to be spent on nuclear submarines. But politics is language, and…

Many get rightly angry about the money to be spent on nuclear submarines. But politics is language, and something at least as egregious has been happening in Australia since 2006. The ‘Future Fund’, Australia’s biggest sovereign wealth fund. Doesn’t it sound great? /1 https://t.co/kZWV9UyKi8

Orwellian language. Tens of billions of taxpayer dollars to fund the nation’s future! And sovereign wealth funds have LOTS going for them, public investment for public ends. But what was The Future Fund set up to fund? /2

Completely unfunded, gold-plated superannuation liabilities for politicians and public servants. Super schemes of outrageous extravagance, that were put in place and then never funded. And some dislike targeting generations for this, but I’m afraid this was pure boomer. /3

Only they qualified for these schemes. Access to them was ruthlessly restricted, nobody else was allowed. I know, I’m Gen X, and the door was slammed shut to these schemes when I reached working age. I watched boomer colleagues head out the door to retirement at 55. /4

On some of these super plans, they retired early (55) at their final working salary, often in the hundreds of thousands, for the rest of their life. Many had contributed barely a cent to the schemes in their entire working lives. And what’s the Future Fund currently worth? /5

Over $272 billion. Let that sink in, in a ‘cost of living crisis’. The FF now also oversees 6-7 other, much smaller sovereign wealth funds. Targeted at things like medical research, disasters, and more recently Albo’s Housing Australia Future Find, with a measly $10 billion. /6

Which is supposed to help fund public and affordable housing. A pittance. The FF is more than all of these other sovereign funds, combined, several times over. And remember its main purpose - fixing extravagant gold-plated unfunded super for a generation currently retiring. /7

The problem isn’t that the old are screwing the young. That’s absolutely happening. It’s *why* they’re doing it. Because they’ve never accepted ageing. Never accepted withdrawing from the centrality of society as they aged, to make way for new generations. /8

They chewed up and spat out any idea of a circle of life, with each generation playing a specific role. Replacing it with an eternal adolescent youth of lifestyle fun and entertainment. ‘You can’t take it with you!’ they proudly beam. This is the Woodstock generation. /9

Which many forget was proudly anti-establishment, at its core. And we wonder where political libertarianism came from today, that wrecking ball of the established order. Not from the ‘Right’. It was a cultural shift. A refusal to age. Sure many also plan to pass on wealth. /10

Philanthropy isn’t public policy. We’re now the US. And sure ‘not all boomers’ are wealthy. But I remember ‘not all men’ not being an excuse for the patriarchy either. This shift was clearly generational, and not accidental. Accountability means at least admitting it. /end