... income of [British] pensioners now comes from social security;" * in 2030 in the US, the number of elderly will double, with only a 15% increase in the number of workers. Given the above-listed statistics, it is clear the potential for enormous generational imbalances are looming. The implication if these imbalances and their true magnitude are less clear. It is easy to state estimated, immediate reductions in government expenditures (~21% for the US) or increases in taxes (~11% of the US) required to achieve generational balance going forward or rattle off projected dependence ratios for the year 2030 (~66% for the US)3. We can also study the impact of current policies, if unchanged, on the tax burden of future generations: future US generations will pay 1.5-times the taxes paid by "newborns"4. Nonetheless, these statistics do not provide clear insight into the likely implications of generational imbalances. As Lenin put it: "Who whom". Or ...

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