Collaboration. Innovation. Risk. Knowledge.

I'd like to talk to the architect of the Australian superannuation system and ask him/her/them whether their risk assessments included the current scenario. The move from a government regulated pension system was seen as a dramatic step forward in the acknowledgment and management of the country's fiscal long term responsibilities. But the exposure to market volatility and severe collapse puts many people in the firing line through no real fault of their own. Lots of people have benefited from the rise in the market over the last few years but imagine if you had pumped a heap of dough in the last 18 months in preparation for your retirement. Ouch.

It also highlights the problems of managing intergenerational conflicts.

Now I yield to no-one in my views that the baby boomers have had an easy ride (I'm generalising). Plentiful jobs, great wages, cheap housing, free education. These conditions have never existed for the bulk of Generation X and Y. Normally I would grind my teeth thinking about it. But I might have to start feeling sorry for the boomers. Facing retirement their nest eggs have been hit very hard, their homes values are starting to drop and the end figure could be severe. All of the assumptions they had for the future are gone and may not ever return.

This is going to be a real policy conundrum for the government. None of us should expect Boomers to go quietly into the night. They will work longer – forget about assuming the mantle if you are Gen X or Y - , they will lay off younger workers, they will demand favourable taxation. In short they will demand solutions for their problems at the expense of the rest of us and of future generations. And they will do this because, like all of us, they are selfish, but unlike the rest of us, because they can. Maybe I shouldn't feel sorry for them after all.