WITH THE NOTABLE EXCEPTION OF THE ISLAMIC WORLD

Growing old globally (Anne Blair Gould, Radio Netherlands, February 1st, 2005)

All over the world, in rich and poor countries alike, populations are ageing - and rapidly! People everywhere are living longer and having fewer children. Consequently, societies all around the globe are facing the daunting prospect of having to support huge numbers of older people with smaller families and fewer workers to put money in the pension pot.

The Global Ageing Initiative (GIA) says that the world is standing on "the threshold of a demographic revolution with few parallels in humanity's past". This scenario, it goes on, will "subject nations around the world to extraordinary economic, social, and political challenges."

Dr Richard Jackson, GAI's Director, explains why:

"For most of human history, the elderly comprised a tiny fraction of the population - never more than 4-5 percent in any country. Today in the rich countries, the elderly comprise 15 percent of the population - and by 2040, they'll comprise 30 percent."[...]

But the fertility rate is also way below the replacement rate in many developing countries, too. China, for instance, which partly because of the one-child-per-family policy and partly because many people live longer faces a huge problem. Experts expect that by 2025 China would be one of the world's most elderly populations, with half of the population aged over 40 and one in seven people aged over 65. And in a low-income country, this will mean real hardship in the not-too-distant future.

But it's not only China, says Richard Jackson:

"The rest of East Asia, Latin America and Mexico are all in real danger of becoming old before they become rich and if so, not only will the elderly impose a growing burden on public budgets but most of all they'll impose an unsupportable burden on families because families represent - still in these countries - the primary form of old-age insurance."

The problem is that people the world over are having fewer children - and if you put that together with the fact that many countries have no, or at best, inadequate pension systems, disastrous consequences await many societies within just a couple of decades.

Not to worry, the UN is on the case.

(See here for a great example of how straightforward eugenics and fears of population “bombs” have been subsumed in benevolent abstract bafflegab.)

Posted by Peter Burnet at February 2, 2005 6:56 AM