Posted on 07/18/2007 9:11:57 AM PDT by qam1
The grey tsunami is growing and in 10 years it's expected that Canada's aging population will hit our workforce with a potentially devastating flood of retirements, leaving employers scrambling for younger workers who simply don't exist.
The undertow, if you will, of this wave of baby boomers hitting freedom 65, is the economically stifling effects of inflation, worsening productivity and a smaller tax pool to pay for all of those artificial hips and other expensive social programs already straining under the weight of the ever-building wave of old folks requiring exponentially more medical care and pension payouts.
Statistics Canada's latest report, entitled Portrait of the Canadian Population in 2006, by Age and Sex, is based on the 2006 census. These numbers paint a picture that is indisputably distressing and distressingly indisputable.
"Population projections show that in about 10 years, Canada may have more people at the age where they can leave the labour force than at the age where they can begin working. This presents considerable challenges for Canadian employers and for society in general," warns the report.
Indeed, Bank of Canada Governor David Dodge warned just last month that Canadian governments need to allow senior citizens to work longer and to break down barriers to labour mobility to help prevent the inflationary pressures that would result from a shrinking pool of workers and taxpayers.
Some experts, however, say removing mandatory retirement laws will do little to stem this rising grey tidal wave.
So, what's the answer?
The figures show the youngest province by far is Alberta, which also happens to have the lowest taxes and the most robust economy. While the recent economic boom is fuelled in large part by the spike in oil and gas prices, most economists also acknowledge that low taxes in Alberta has helped attract investors and made having children affordable.
The only way to prevent the baby boom from busting Canada's economy is to make it easier and more affordable for young Canadians to have more children -- not through more onerous social programs but through lower taxes.
The grey wave is coming. We must act now to prevent disaster.
Ping list for the discussion of the politics and social (and sometimes nostalgic) aspects that directly effects Generation Reagan / Generation-X (Those born from 1965-1981) including all the spending previous generations are doing that Gen-X and Y will end up paying for.
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This is the inevitable outcome of a fundamental misunderstanding of the proper role of government. As soon as people get the idea that government is there to make your life easier, it's all downhill.
Hey they could always take in a bunch of immigrants and make them pay into social security. ;-)
Bingo, government is not my nanny. This may be a huge problem for Canada, due to its health care system.
It can become a problem in the US also. The older generation is being forced out of the work place for one important reason. When you look at disability insurance for a person in their 20’s, the cost could be about $1000 a year. For a person over 50, the insurance could be well over $10,000 a year. A company looks at this and can save hundreds of thousands of dollars by forcing out the elderly. If we change this, we can keep all that experience the elderly have and let them train the next generation instead of letting them re-invent the wheel. We loose a lot by pushing out our parents.
I am near 60 and don’t want to stop working, but I do want something with a bit less stress.
Wal-Mart door greeter!
This is a bit too far in the other direction.
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