What is at stake?

Welcome to this exciting course on the thorny issue of inequalities in personal finance.

As the video explores, growing inequalities in affluent countries and greater reliance on the individual to provide for their financial security, especially in old age, have brought up significant issues. We will explore some of these over the next few weeks, including:

• Why inequality matters and how does it differ across countries and between groups or generations?
• Are younger people exposed to more risk and higher costs than their parents and grandparents when it comes to providing financial security in retirement in a context of ageing populations?
• Is access to property in general and housing in particular, an ever growing challenge for the young generations and is it the same in other countries? Is there too much wealth concentration and too many empty houses lying around that could be used more efficiently?
• What can people and governments do about the risks and tensions that inequalities lead to? Could there be better redistribution and sharing of resources and risk? Can it happen naturally? Does it need to happen?

Hopefully the next four weeks will bring some light to these important questions and you will be able to participate in the discussion which we are sure will be animated and passionate!