The economic, demographic, social and political trends that became established in the last thirty years and the global crisis that followed are having particularly negative effects on young people and their future, particularly in Italy, where the backwardness of the production system is worsening the effects of the crisis. The article, which draws on some results of the «Report on the social state 2011» prepared by the author himself, also compares the situations of «fathers» and «sons». The condition of the latter is worsening, although this is not due to any selfishness on the part of the former, but to the worsening of the economic-social balance of the last thirty years, which is not so much ageist, as classist, discriminating against families and specific areas. The analysis of the European and Italian welfare systems is followed by some proposals for defusing the pensions bomb that is developing in Italy and that penalizes this generation of young people above all.only subscribers can see the full article