LONDON, ENGLAND – OCTOBER 20: British Prime Minister David Cameron leaves Downing Street for Parliament on October 20, 2010 in London, England. The Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne is set to announce the coalition government’s spending review in Parliament. The review is designed to tackle the country’s deficit and will outline swinging cuts throughout the whole of the public sector with many public sector jobs set to be axed and budgets significantly reduced. (Image credit: Getty Images via @daylife)

This article from Bagehot in the Economist would be funny if it were not so sad. I recommend it for a read. Check it out!

Bagehot: Generation Xhausted | The Economist.

Being older than the author, retired and having seen a fair bit of the World, of course, I see matters slightly differently. In my generation too, I saw enormous pressure to make progress up the ladder, then to realize that at of a certain age, the ladder is withdrawn. Sadly, for the current generation of professionals and aspiring professionals there are three differences to my generation:

• The ladder is being offered later in life and to fewer more carefully selected individuals;
• The ladder is being withdrawn at a much younger age too, and
• Alternative career paths, like independent consulting and executive interim management are disappearing, as they become commoditized by David Cameron‘s Public Sector procurement policy.

For me, society seems less egalitarian than in my generation. Success seems much more dependent upon class, school, privilege, family wealth and connections. In my day, hard work could get you a long way…

What do you think?