The Double Inequality of Generation and Class世代與階級的雙重不平等
Author:
Ping Xu 徐萍
Language:
Multilingual (English + Traditional Chinese)
Audience:
Adult / General
English DescriptionA new generation is falling-not just behind, but beneath.
Around the world, young people are entering adulthood only to find the ladder of opportunity shattered. Housing costs have soared out of reach, wages have stagnated, and public systems built for another era no longer protect them. At the same time, wealth has become increasingly concentrated in the hands of older and already affluent groups. This is not just an economic gap - it is a historic rupture.
In The Double Inequality of Generation and Class, reform strategist and policy thinker Ping Xu uncovers how two powerful forces - age-based inequality and class-based inequality - have fused into a single trap. She shows how older, wealthier cohorts capture the majority of policy benefits while younger, working generations shoulder shrinking wages, ballooning debts, and unaffordable housing. The system quietly rewards the security of the few while draining the vitality of the many.
Xu reveals how governments have ignored this shift for decades, relying on outdated assumptions of lifelong stable employment and upward mobility that no longer exist. Through cross-national comparisons - from collapsing birth rates in East Asia to widening generational wealth gaps in the United States and Europe - she shows that the generational bargain underpinning modern society has broken down. Young people are no longer simply ""starting lower"" on the ladder; many are being locked out entirely.
But this book is not just a warning - it is a blueprint for repair. Xu outlines bold structural reforms to reset the social contract: universal basic income to rebuild the floor, tax shifts to rebalance wealth, housing policy to reclaim affordability, and intergenerational compacts to align long-term care, pensions, and education. She argues that restoring balance between generations is not charity - it is survival. Without it, nations will face shrinking workforces, collapsing demand, and political disintegration.
The Double Inequality of Generation and Class shines a clear light on the hidden architecture of decline. It calls on policymakers, educators, and citizens to stop treating inequality as natural - and start seeing it as a design flaw that can, and must, be fixed.
