YouGov research (see this i100 article) suggests that young people are more concerned about the environment and the living wage than immigration and other results indicate similar differences between what they care about and the policies the main parties are offering. If only we could age them to see what their answers would be as older people (if we waited for them to age naturally, other factors come into play).
The popular belief is that people become more right-wing, or at least more conservative with age. In theory, we are more likely to support austerity, lower taxes and policies that are seen to slow down the rate of change a country might go through as we get older. Some of this makes sense: we want to conserve what we have because we've earned it and we're used to it. But I wonder whether there are other reasons. Do we change our opinions, having been bombarded with conservative, right-wing messages for longer? Do we just become less tolerant and a little more selfish as we become - and sadly though I wish it weren't, I think this is true - less important to society?
My own belief development hasn't quite followed this route. When I was younger, I was much more judgmental and felt that there were far too many people who could get a job but didn't want one and that most people committing crime did it because they were bad people. I probably would have also said we pay too much tax. Now I know better: I'm much more well-informed and look up facts for myself online, rather than accepting common opinion as fact. I now think that the majority of people do want to work and even those who don't aren't necessarily to blame, because employment hasn't been the 'norm' in their families or social groups since the end of the traditional working-class industries. I now think that most people who commit crime do it because they have to to get by, or because they've had such a shit life they need to take it out on something, somehow, or simply because they have nothing else to do and have been left so bereft of opportunities that nothing else occurs to them. I also know that countries with higher taxes and higher public spending tend to have a better quality of life. Good salaries in public sector jobs push up private sector salaries too (they have to compete) and higher salaries means everyone pays more income tax and if spending rises too, everyone gets better public services which improves everyone's quality of life. The less tax we pay, the poorer our public services are and the poorer our quality of life. And private sector salaries stay low because they can. It's pretty much as simple as that.
I'm probably a bad example and I would still guess that people tend to become more conservative as they get older. But does it have to be this way? Judging by this research (admittedly not exhaustive but polling rarely is), most young people voting now would not vote conservative or UKIP but here we are with the conservatives running the country (and Lib Dems mostly toeing the party line when it counts) and UKIP all over the news. What if that weren't the case and more left-wing policies were discussed on the BBC and in the papers? If people were more informed about the other side of taxation (it's not bad: it pays for good things we all need and want) and of the roots unemployment, poverty and criminality than they were about immigration, 'benefits scroungers' and problems in the NHS, might they be more inclined to stick to the more caring, progressive ideals of their youth?
There is a chance, of course, that today's young people might not become more conservative with age. The environment and caring for it is something they've been brought up with and equality and diversity are, hopefully, concepts that hardly occur to them because they're less likely to think any other way. The internet provides a far broader perspective on politics than the mainstream media ever have and with actual facts at your fingertips, it's easier to find the truth behind the spin.
We can live in hope.
No comments:
Post a Comment