Investing in tomorrow’s children
There is something quietly revolutionary happening across the Atlantic. Next year, every child born in the US will receive $1,000 in a government-backed investment account – a policy designed not for tomorrow’s headlines but for the next generation’s balance sheets. It is the sort of long-term financial planning that Britain, for all its rhetoric about opportunity and aspiration, never seems brave enough to attempt.
Real investment, not rhetoric
Michael and Susan Dell’s decision to put $6.25bn behind these so called Trump Accounts underlines a simple truth: when government and markets pull in the same direction, society benefits. As reported by the Financial Times, the Dells said they believe the effort will “expand opportunity, strengthen communities and help more children take ownership of their future”
For once, this is not empty billionaire philanthropy designed for glossy annual reports. Their money will top up 25 million accounts for children already born, widening the programme’s reach and reinforcing a bipartisan idea: if you give young people capital early enough, the power of compound interest will do the heavy lifting.
Small sums, huge impact
I have long argued that Britain must be far bolder in using the market to fund the future. Imagine if the government deposited a modest lump sum on every birthday, a seed for a later pension. Imagine children given an investment account at birth, building quietly year after year, turning a few hundred pounds into something genuinely life changing.
These are not wild fantasies. They are small inputs with vast outputs – the sort of interventions that generate not just financial returns but social ones. A society where children start adulthood with capital is a society that believes in mobility, ownership and participation. America is moving decisively in that direction. Britain is not.
A lesson Britain refuses to learn
The Invest America Act, signed earlier this year, opens these accounts to contributions from families, employers and communities. Senators Ted Cruz and Cory Booker have even urged Fortune 1000 companies to match contributions or integrate the scheme into their philanthropy. The message is clear: investment is everyone’s business.
Contrast that with Britain, where long termism is a press release rather than a practice. We talk endlessly about fairness yet do almost nothing to ensure the next generation enters adulthood with assets, not just debts.
Time to stop dreaming
The US is showing what partnership between state and private capital can achieve. Children born in 2025 will step into adulthood with a stake in the economy. Here in Britain, we are still dreaming of policies that others are already delivering.
If we want a nation that genuinely lifts its young, we need more than slogans. We need investment. We need imagination. And above all, we need the courage to plant financial seeds today whose dividends, literal and metaphorical. will be reaped tomorrow.
