A departing editor-at-large from The Australian Financial Review, off to head the IPA, warns of an “intergenerational tragedy” facing young Australians.

The argument? That rising compulsory super contributions, high house prices, growing public debt, and slow productivity growth are burdening today’s youth – while older Australians sit on vast untapped wealth. It’s a story that contains truth. But it’s also a story that deftly avoids naming the real culprits: the structural design of our economy, the rigged tax system and the enduring political capture by vested interests.

Yes, today’s young Australians are squeezed – by insecure work, by rising rents, by student debt, and by housing prices that have decoupled entirely from incomes. But the problem is not simply the behaviour of older Australians, many of whom are not wealthy. Nor is the answer to ease “red and green tape” or hand more concessions to developers. The problem is the system. And it’s a system that decades of bipartisan economic orthodoxy — cheered along by outfits like the Centre for Independent Studies — have built and entrenched.

Let’s start with the housing crisis. It is not a mystery. When housing becomes a speculative asset, pumped up by tax breaks like negative gearing and the capital gains discount, of course prices will rise. When planning decisions are outsourced to developer-driven councils or profit-motivated panels, of course supply will be skewed toward luxury apartments rather than affordable, sustainable homes. Deregulation and zoning “reform” are not magic fixes – they’re often just code for more market control and less public oversight. If we want affordability, we need to revive large-scale public and co-operative housing and treat housing as a human right, not a commodity.

Then there’s superannuation. Compulsory super has created the fourth-largest pool of retirement savings in the world. But instead of being used to guarantee dignity in retirement for all, it’s increasingly become a tax-sheltered inheritance system. We don’t need to scrap super. But we do need to tax super earnings fairly, include the family home in pension asset tests above a generous threshold, and design better decumulation strategies so that retirees use — not hoard — their savings. Most of all, we must redirect the super system’s investment power away from extractive industries and speculative property plays toward long-term nation-building – clean energy, care infrastructure and affordable housing.

As for government debt? The “youth on the hook” narrative sounds ominous, but is deeply misleading. Australia’s net debt remains modest by international standards. More importantly, the real intergenerational crime is underinvestment – in education, climate adaptation, health, and housing. We will not build a fair, secure future for young Australians by clinging to arbitrary debt caps and budget surpluses. We need sustained, smart public investment – and the courage to fund it through progressive taxation, including wealth taxes and higher taxes on unproductive capital.

And productivity? For all the hand-wringing, it’s worth remembering that real wages have barely budged for a decade despite rising profits. That’s not a productivity problem – it’s a distribution problem. Rebuilding our manufacturing base, investing in skills and education and shifting from a low-wage service economy to one driven by care, creativity and clean industries will do more for productivity than deregulating the labour market ever could.

Young Australians are not asking for handouts. They are asking for fairness. For a system that rewards work over wealth. For a government that invests in their future, not just protects past gains. For an economy that shares prosperity and builds sustainability and resilience, not one that waits for them to inherit what’s left.

It is time to stop blaming the victims of a system they didn’t build and start changing rules and structures. We know what to do. The question is whether our politics has the will – and whose voices it will listen to.

The views expressed in this article may or may not reflect those of Pearls and Irritations.