The Guardian: "The graduates of 2012 will survive only in the cracks of our economy"

Link to The Guardian

"The phrase 'graduate without a future' came into my head while I was lecturing students in the politics society at Birmingham University.
I drew a notional graph of expectations, curving up."

Here's your income at 21

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Then you get rising wages, and rising house prices, once you're on the ladder

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Your pension pot grows, and at the end of the curve you're comfortable

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There's a welfare state to protect you if things go wrong

"That was the old curve.
Then I drew the new one.
It curves down."

Wages don't rise

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You can't get on the property ladder, and fiscal austerity eats into your disposable income

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You are locked out of your firm's pension scheme, and you will wait until your late 60s for retirement

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If it all goes wrong, it's touch and go whether the welfare safety net will still be there