Monday, December 20, 2010

Overlapping generations model breaks down

In the overlapping generations model, the young take care of the old, and in return they will receive the same treatment when they turn old. But happens if there is a last generation? Especially one that results from the creation of an exit option?

At the Priory of Our Lady of Walsingham, three of the younger nuns in this Church of England order have announced plans to take up the Pope's invitation to switch to the Catholic Church:
Relations had become strained in the convent following the decision by the younger sisters to join the Ordinariate – the structure set up by Pope Benedict XVI to welcome disillusioned Anglicans into the Catholic fold. The older nuns were upset by their announcement, which they felt divided the house and left them facing the task of running the community on their own.
...
"The atmosphere in the house was appalling," says one insider. "They saw it as a desertion and felt the younger nuns were using the house as a hostel until they left.

"It's not surprising they were upset as the expectation is that the younger ones should look after the older nuns because running the house and changing the beds are hardly jobs for women in their 80s."
Read it all in The Telegraph.

More:
The community, which numbered seven nuns belonging to the Society of St Margaret, reportedly voted four to three against joining the ordinariate. The three nuns who left the community are its youngest members.
Not mentioned is the possibility that the older members are subject to some sort of lock-in effect. Who would take care of them if they changed horses at this point in their lives? Another factor: the creation of the ordinariate undercut the belief that another generation of nuns would come along. Finally, the Church of England has made it clear it owns parish property. Presumably the same is true of the property in this case.

1 Comments:

Anonymous English By Skype said...

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9:19 PM  

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