Posted: Fri Jun 03, 2005 12:22 am Post subject: Re: Demographics
mpg wrote:
One demographic change that doesn't get mentioned very often is the ratio between doctors and the elderly. As the percentage of elderly increase each year the amount of medical care they need will need as a group will increase. It will be very difficult to increase the amount of physicians (it takes a few years to get through the system, plenty are retiring early) Everyone else will rarely see a doctor. Perhaps we will need to import doctors to try to cope.
The UK has already been accused of stealing all the doctors from Africa. I never thought of that though, in essence old people will be a double burden on the system because a) they are not contributing and b) they are using more services. _________________ Hello, my name is Rax. I live in the Amazon jungle with a bunch of women. We are super eco feminists and our favourite passtimes are dangling men by their ankles and discussing peak oil. - apparently
Joined: May 06, 2005 Posts: 209 Location: North Texas
Posted: Fri Jun 03, 2005 12:37 pm Post subject:
RonMN wrote:
so in 3 years we have the first "large wave" of baby boomers reaching retirement age...we're facing crushing economics in social security, medicare, medicade, massive gov't debt & twin deficits, massive consumer debt, a declining dollar, rising fuel costs, peak oil, a seriously degraded environment, over population, wars on (atleast) 2 fronts, another huge hurricane season has been predicted for this year...
Have i missed anything? any killer asteroids headded our way? H5N1 pandemic?
That's a nice (scary) list you have going RonMN.
I would just add, as others have posted, these things:
Housing bubble
Terrorism/Security costs and fees
Pensions - most companies in the U.S. don't offer them anymore because the other benefits (healthcare) are skyrocketing, so more people will retire later and work longer with less money, meaning less good jobs for new workers
Ignorance - companies still rely so much on growth and seem completely ignorant about it
The government will have to raise income taxes to pay for social security. Mathematically, it is impossible to pay using the current system, despite what the politicians say. I believe the ratio in the 1980's was 16 workers for one retiree, and when it was started it was like 70 to 1. It doesn't and shouldn't take a genius to figure out that 3 workers for one retiree isn't going to cut it, let alone 2 to 1 ratios or worse, which is what is projected when I retire.
And to quote the head of the Social Security Administration, who was once asked where are the assets of the SSA, he replied "We have no assets." All those 'securities' are just scraps of paper, nothing more, and the U.S. government is not obligated to pay them back, ever. If they did they would have to raise taxes to pay them anyways.
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