La generazione futura è quella passata? = Is the next generation the past one?

Whether the past generation corresponds to the future one is undoubtedly a paradox, but real attention must be paid to it. The United Nations has counted the phenomenon of population ageing among the four demographic megatrends – together with population growth, international migration, and urbanisation – that is globally in act and as such capable of altering the balances of countries because of its pervasive and lasting nature. Looking at the world demographic forecasts to 2100, it is possible to note that the elderly cohort (over 65) far exceeds the young people one (under 15), which would represent the so-called “future generation”. Indeed, we don’t have to look so far to find that this situation has already occurred for some time in high-income countries, especially in Italy, the second oldest country in the world after Japan, where the ageing index is very high and where the demographic crack is expected in the next decades. Therefore, the reflection on the expression “next generation”, taken from recent European policies and specifically from the NextGenerationEU Plan, originates from the demographic data reading. It is important to understand how a past generation, the elderly one, can be a resource for society becoming in some way also a future generation, without neglecting what is necessary and urgent there is to be done to support population growth at the same time.