Book excerpt: 'Our present welfare state has little good reason to survive much longer, and we will have to find a new basis for its continued existence.’ So writes David Thomson as he offers an unflinching perspective on how different generations have fared under the social welfare policies of governments since the 1930s. Selfish Generations? is a critical and unsentimental analysis of a key political issue, and the questions it raises about support for the young and old, and about health, education and housing policy, are exactly those facing politicians and social welfare policy developers today.