Plenty of time to change the world…

I really like this Generation Innovation trailer.

If I had one criticism, it is that it looks at the young to sort out the problems of the current and past generations.

That’s not fair.

There are people in work today, more than 20 years from retirement, who can still make a massive difference. And they’re not doing it. They’re sitting on their laurels, managing vast empires of paper.

As the video says, we have turned into property developers, lawyers and accountants: a public sector paradise. But these people are the people with the power to change things.

Our streets are decked with the flags of banned paramilitary organisations. Their murals deface our walls. They’re the barnacles growing on the gleaming hulls of our ships – dragging us down, making us look old, slow us down.

Our politicians are sessile; concerned with the petty rivalries of party politics rather than making a difference.

We have plenty of jobs, but parents are not educating children to choose the careers of tomorrow. They want their children to follow them into the civil service, into law, medicine – careers for which we already train four times as many people as we need.

I’ve got more than 30 years of work/career before national retirement age (assuming it moves up again 🙂 ) and that’s plenty of time to change the world.