Who will pay for the old? Half of children born today will live to at least 100 years

[Breerman]

Translated from the source:

According to a study that is to be published in the medial journal the Lancet half of the children born today in highly developed countries like Sweden will live to be at least 100 years.

http://www.aftonbladet.se/senastenytt/ttnyheter/inrikes/article5890718.ab

Am I missing something or who is supposed to pay for all these oldies? The government have a hard time even to push to age of retirement to 67 years and certain groups are even able to retire around the age of 60.

[budgie]

Big problem in japan right now. Fact is they had too many kids in the middle of last century, they live a long healthy life and now those people are reaching retirement and the current birthrate doesn't support it. The government are bending over backwards trying to encorage people to have more kids to pay for this army of retirees.

But seriously, 125 million people on an archipelago the size of New Zealand? IMO wealthy nations like Japan should suck up the economic burden of supporting retirees for the next generation or two and learn to make do after that with a smaller population and more living space in the middle of this century.

In short, everyone will have to make cutbacks, the elderly included.

[ren0312]

Big problem in japan right now. Fact is they had too many kids in the middle of last century, they live a long healthy life and now those people are reaching retirement and the current birthrate doesn't support it. The government are bending over backwards trying to encorage people to have more kids to pay for this army of retirees.

But seriously, 125 million people on an archipelago the size of New Zealand? IMO wealthy nations like Japan should suck up the economic burden of supporting retirees for the next generation or two and learn to make do after that with a smaller population and more living space in the middle of this century.

In short, everyone will have to make cutbacks, the elderly included.

Well Hokkaido still has a lot of open spaces.

[Airhab]

This is why we need to tax the rich more

[Kadrun]

This is why we need to tax the rich more

um........... what?

[budgie]

Well Hokkaido still has a lot of open spaces.


I'd like it to stay that way too.

[sheytanelkebir]

abolish the retirement age.

work till you drop, or have sufficient savings to retire.

if you have no money and are unable to work, family will take care of you.

if you have no family, charitable organisations can help.


society's been living like this for ages. only the last few decades have been abnormal.

PS. when countries "cut back"=, that would include medical care, which should throttle the life expectancy.

spend more effort on "preventative medicine" and healthy lifestyles which (although hated by the "medical profession" is the proper way to manage people's lives).

I believe the human population must have a controlled contraction via lower birth rates. it certainly beats having a contraction via pandemics and wars over the final scraps on this planet.

[Commander Cool]

if you have no money and are unable to work, family will take care of you.

But won't that encourage people to have lots of kids?

One of the main reasons people in the developed world have so many kids is to ensure they have someone to take care of them when they're too old.