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The Morning Briefing: An ageing population

By Charlie Osborne | February 13, 2013, 1:13 AM PST

“The Morning Briefing” is SmartPlanet’s daily roundup of must-reads from the web. This morning we’re reading about ageing populations.

1.) An ageing population may be what the world needs. Americans just don’t make babies like they used to. The U.S. birthrate is the lowest in nearly a century, according to a study released last year by the Pew Research Center.

2.) Design for an ageing population. A new multidisciplinary field has emerged in several universities in which sociologists, psychologists and urban planners work to tailor architectural designs to seniors as that demographic continues to grow.

3.) Three reasons to be fearful about a cap on social care costs. The government has at last published its plans for care funding more than 18 months after the Dilnot commission’s report. As widely reported, these plans include a cap on care costs of £75k, with the means-test threshold raised to £123k.

4.) China’s ageing population: 100-year waiting list for Beijing nursing home. Methuselah himself might have struggled to win a place at one of Beijing’s most popular old people’s homes: the waiting list is currently 100 years long.

5.) Does an ageing population hurt the economy? The economic benefit of immigration is in part about how big of a problem our aging population is.

Photo credit: Denish C

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About Charlie Osborne

Charlie Osborne is a contributing editor for SmartPlanet.

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The growing number of elderly in the U.S. population, means a

growing crisis for the country, because, they need and use more government services than any other group. Also, they are not part of the productive side of the work-force, which means that, there will, eventually, be more people of retirement age than people working. That will present a crisis of enormous proportions, and, with the way things are now, won't have any solutions.

Government will be forced into taking drastic actions, with most of the elderly having to go without a lot of the services which they've come to depend on, and a lot of other social programs will also have to be eliminated or reduced in size. It will be the same as a person who loses his income and credit cards at the same time, which essentially stops his spending and ends up destitute. The U.S. government is already destitute, because we can't meet our obligations without having to borrow money (44 cents out of every dollar spent, has been borrowed). The U.S. has also resorted to devaluing the currency, which makes their obligations easier to pay, but it also devalues the money in people's pockets and in their bank accounts, which means that, their money won't go as far as it used to.

All around, aging populations are a ticking time bomb. Solutions are being put off, which will just make the crisis so much bigger when the end comes.

Posted by adornoe

13th Feb

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In

As low as the birthrate is in the US...

...in western Europe is even less; they are literally depopulating.

The "population bomb" isn't happening in the west.

Health care is going to get "capped" or "rationed"? Big surprise. Too bad Dana Blankenhorn isn't still around to explain this for us.

Edited by JohnMcGrew@...

Updated - 13th Feb

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Yet nearly every complaint is aimed at the US.

"Americans just dont make babies like they used to. The U.S. birthrate is the lowest in nearly a century,"

So why is the US a target of so much anger in the anti overpopulation community?

The reality is, if it were not for immigration the US would be losing population. So is the overpopulation answer for the US to barricade our borders? I thought we were bad people for wanting to secure our borders.

Ah hell, we cannot win. We are wrong no matter what we do.

http://www.collegiatetimes.com/stories/19025/overpopulation-a-us-issue

http://www.flsuspop.org/docs/mostoverpopulated.html

Posted by Hates Idiots

Updated - 13th Feb

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The growing number of elderly in the U.S. population, means a

Posted by adornoe

13th Feb

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Good point.

In 2009 the unfunded liabilities for Social Security and Medicare were a combined $107 trillion dollars.

http://www.ncpa.org/pub/ba662

That was before tens of thousands of laid off baby boomers retired early in 2009 after their 99 weeks of unemployment ran out.

http://www.livescience.com/19892-america-baby-boomers-retirement.html

Who knows how high that unfunded amount is now after 2 years of reduced SS tax collections and large numbers of early retirees.

The harsh reality that people do not want to face is that either taxes will nearly double on everyone to help pay for this, or promised benefits get cut.

We will be Greece.

Posted by Hates Idiots

Updated - 13th Feb

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I don't think most people, even in Washington have a clue...

...as to the real economic implications of this:

Masses of otherwise employable people shifting from the net producer to the net consumer column by retiring in their early 60s with an expected lifespan of 20 years beyond that.

The better part of an entire generation coming out of adolescence into a marketplace that has little use for them. A large percentage of them are already indebted with 5 of 6 figures of student loan debt that they may never get out from under.

A government and monetary system who's only substantive response to this has been to spend profligately, borrow heavily, and print the rest.

Once that younger generation does get gainfully employed, it will be both making up for its own lost time, and paying to support the retired generation.

Higher consumption without a proportionate increase in national productivity will render what is left of the savings of the retired generation nearly worthless.

The younger generation will grow to resent the older generation. Due to the highly progressive nature of income taxation, and the socialization of a large degree of basic lifestyle, a large percentage of the younger generation will make the rational economic decision that there's no reason to work more than it takes "to get by".

America will be worse off than Greece, as there will be no one else big (or willing) enough to bail us out.

I now sadly chuckle when I see those retirement planning ads on TV; the ones where people in the early 60s look forward to leaving their work-a-day world to travelling, buying vineyards, owning horse ranches, etc. The neo-Keynesians destroyed that dream years ago.

Posted by JohnMcGrew@...

13th Feb

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As low as the birthrate is in the US...

Posted by JohnMcGrew@...

Updated - 13th Feb

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