Britain’s older electorate can live with low GDP. It’s high inflation they abhor | Torsten Bell
by Torsten Bell from on (#69Q7Q)
Tories can take heart that the over 65s won't punish poor GDP, research finds. Just don't hit them in the pocket
Britain is a stagnation nation, with next to no productivity growth and zero real wage growth post-financial crisis. And that's before inflation hit 40-year highs. Can British politics chart a course out of this low-growth mess?
The demographics won't help. That is the takeaway from an interesting recent paper by Oxford's Tim Vlandas. Britain is getting older (we'll have around 2.5 million more people aged over 65 in 2030 v 2020). Some of the growth effects are obvious (fewer workers means lower GDP), but the indirect impacts on growth via politics are Vlandas's focus. He raises two concerns.
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