The postulate of the title is a direction of likelihood. It is not just an idea, but a call for an ethical public spirit going forward. It also opens ground for a discussion of what an economist cannot yet measure or observe. The postulate of a reality where our grandchildren have pensions, is as such only if we protect this realistic idea now. It might be idealistic. It might have been another idea on the future that we could only hope and implore others to share. As an ideal it is not entirely new.

There are members of our trade union that always knew the possibility behind that type of idealism and that political discussion was a means. But the following argument is not an ethical case for ensuring that each and all have an adequate share. It is an argument for a new shared and imagined reality. The case is made that we can now realistically consider the pensions of our grandchildren. Without the means this is an ideal. Here I argue it is something for which we can immediately plan. It is a postulate for each and all to guide our shared economic and social direction.

It would be necessary to make modernism popular again. The promise of a good life, from cradle to grave, required trust in a shared economic and social reality. This understanding of the nation state as a trustworthy apparatus allowed for a means of popular discussion. The economic and social reality in the time of Keynesianism was something that people observed. It was understood that improvements in the life of each and all were possible. It was trusted that the nation state and political discussion was the best means to deliver the potential gains.

In the nation state of today we can make new gains. But we need to return trust to the economic and social reality of daily life. The role model young worker and family no longer have the certainty of a lifelong tenure. The labour market system as something that is in effect a pressing legal reality might surprise the young graduate. The former interpellation of a role model has now been made less a matter of citizen and greater good. The current interpellation of a worker is in a context where the job for life cannot be considered.

There are six stories we can still tell the young worker. The story I will tell here is an Irish explanation of modernism in this country. I will begin with Education as a public good. That allows for the easy adoption and advancement of Science. Which then supports and sustains the function of the State. There are only three factors in that story. Hence, there are six ways to have a start, middle and end. These three factors act like an axis that continually spins. It might be that interpellation is difficult when they all spin without a clear argument for the greater good. The force of the axis can marginalise other factors worthy of consideration and even the greater morality is lost.

It takes an argument to instil trust in the young workers economic and social reality. The notion of modernism seems alien to too many and because they can only trust themselves in an uncertain context. As the postulate requires that modernism be made popular again, I ask that many others allow for the rehabilitation of Adam Smith. This enlightenment thinker gave many a working faith in what was possible by the nation state. However, his theory was used as a vehicle for some whom finding themselves under pressure were not considerate of the economic and social reality of others. This consideration might not have been possible. The many advances in economics that he inspired came to be used as a means of full employment, successfully achieved in many examples, but at the cost of the social fabric and pastoral realism.

In another telling of the modernism story, there is a role for the state pension in satisfying three basic local concerns for the older person and their network of associations among the immediate economic and social reality. The concern of adequacy is satisfied by a basic payment that meets the basic measurable needs of each and any older person. The concern of affordability is satisfied by market interventions allowing the older person access to markets for key goods and services. The concern of care is satisfied when their health needs are met after deliberation and with their own express interests in mind. The postulate of the title helps in planning the state pension to satisfy what are inevitable local concerns. There is a further role for the state indicated currently in Ireland by the process of deliberating a Local Economic and Community Plan. We can now realistically use this idea of the pensions of our grandchildren and the state apparatus as a political means towards a better future.

The pensions of our grandchildren will go some way towards maintaining an immediate economic and social reality in urban and rural areas. The changing role for the state indicated already in planning processes requires young workers to make that planning reality. This requires an interpellation towards the state and the fostering of self enhancement values among the young workers. There will be a need for role models. The self enhancement values in this case might be professionalism, excellence, efficiency, and value for money. These values are all supported by the current trade union demand of better pay, better terms and conditions, and better living standards. The postulate necessarily asks us to also protect the workers of today.

However, this specialisation and then justice, is envisaged in the work of Adam Smith as happening after a concern with humanism. There is a requirement that modernism ensures self-transcendent values. There is a conscious reciprocity at play in the relation of the state pension to local economic and community planning. The values for many might be democracy, dignity, community, and social justice. The modernism axis spins and yet it still must allow space for willing economic and community action by individuals of many networks of associations. The pension promise that we make to each and all workers as a nation can be reasonably imagined as another modern gain that we made through a shared political process. We are protecting the social contract.

With compact growth, both urban and rural, the individual in every household matters. The third phase of life of our grandchildren, and the protection of their welfare in that time through an adequate state pension and a pension promise, is something that we can in fact postulate. We can then use this exercise as a means towards ensuring a better economic and social reality than if we did not plan and provide for this likely reality. The economic benefits that are produced along the way should serve every household and all of society. In this effort we are currently guided by an idea of compact growth. This idea must acknowledge the role of the labour market as the market of primary concern.

In the Ireland we live today, it is possible to imagine a full democratisation. The market of primary concern in both urban and rural settings is still the labour market. But we can broaden our focus to have social policy that accounts for each individual in every household. This is already happening for many people elsewhere in Europe, hence the argument that we can plan, rather than making the case of how things should be in ideal terms. The young worker needs to trust the nation state and their participation in the labour market can be encouraged through a supportive form of activation, as well as a broader popular compulsion. But this need of encouragement and direction also applies to the older person as they enter a third phase of life.

The mentioned work from Enlightenment thinker Adam Smith was part of a new popular consciousness that paved the way for revolution and the creation of new nation states. Even still today, and in Ireland, the individual finds themselves and then justice, often before they understand the need for generosity and public spirit. It is these two latter concerns that we should all consider facing into the uncertainty of future events. The pension promise is a strong moral commitment to the individual of every household. It will have a role in our collective economic and social reality. The Irish story has its own unique features and there are many lessons provided by the European social model for other nations. The aim should always be that the economy serves society.

A restatement of this truism has been the main result of the Open Method of Cooperation among European Social Affairs ministers. In general terms they stated that social protection policy should not be whittled down to solely poverty eradication and social exclusion, it also should not have a one-sided cost dimension in EU discourse, and it is essential in counterbalancing an excessive focus on fiscal and economic considerations in policy generally. The labour market system is the only real security that we can offer the individual and this is the basis of the broader society. Even today when member state economies are at different stages of the business cycle, developing or contracting at different rates, the postulate of the title is a progressive direction of likelihood. It will need the strong moral commitment of a pension promise to make it reality.

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