The world’s demographics have already been transformed. Europe is shrinking. China is shrinking, with India, a much younger country, overtaking it this year as the world’s most populous nation.
But what we’ve seen so far is just the beginning.
The projections are reliable, and stark: By 2050, people age 65 and older will make up nearly 40 percent of the population in some parts of East Asia and Europe. That’s almost twice the share of older adults in Florida, America’s retirement capital. Extraordinary numbers of retirees will be dependent on a shrinking number of working-age people to support them.
In all of recorded history, no country has ever been as old as these nations are expected to get.
As a result, experts predict, things many wealthier countries take for granted — like pensions, retirement ages and strict immigration policies — will need overhauls to be sustainable. And today’s wealthier countries will almost inevitably make up a smaller share of global G.D.P., economists say.
This is a sea change for Europe, the United States, China and other top economies, which have […]
Within the context of the neo-liberal economic models, and policies, which dominate the US at present, the elderly are considered “surplus” population, no longer contributing to the economic vibrancy of the country. Although the elderly are still profit centers within the context of our current illness profit system, the increasing use of opaque AI algorithms in making medical determinations could certainly effect the health outcomes of millions with just a few “tweaks” here and there. Observe the current lawsuits pending against Cigna and United Healthcare for massive denials of claims without physician review. Many vulnerable elderly could be culled from the population during the years long period it would take to discover these algorithms, and prosecute the lawsuits required to change them. I wonder how many readers in this forum would trust neo-liberal algorithmic medical processes to care for them in their old age?
I agree with you, Albus. I am a 76 year old disabled person on Social Security and I only get an amount of money equal to the Federal Poverty Level Wage, which is not enough to support myself on. Our tax system is NOT FAIR, when some people make BILLIONS of dollars every year. It would take me at least 4,000 LIFETIMES to make a Billion dollars. We need to chabge our tax system. We need another FDR!
We paid all our working years…maybe 40…to contribute to the younger generation…i.e. Medicare, Social Security…made work, life decisions based on promises…