Immigration not the only way to counter our ageing population

The Australian ^ | September 19, 2009 | Stephen Lunn

[myknowledge]

THE Rudd government should be wary about using high levels of immigration in coming decades as a means to counteract the decline in productivity resulting from an ageing population because more over-55s are staying on in their jobs, a population expert warns.

Monash University demographer Bob Birrell said Treasury's new population estimate for Australia -- 35 million by 2050 -- was based on immigration levels of about 180,000 a year, a rate that may not be necessary to keep the economy running and will be difficult to provide for in terms of urban infrastructure and services.

"The government seems to have bought the argument that business in Australia needs a high amount of labour force growth to keep it going in the future. The rest of us are going to have to bear the consequences of that," Professor Birrell said yesterday.

"The government doesn't seem prepared to explore how we need to make social adjustments; rather, they are relying on the prop of bringing in more people of younger ages to essentially put all the older people to bed."

In a speech yesterday to launch the new Australian Institute for Population Ageing Research at the University of NSW, Wayne Swan noted the previous estimate of Australia's future population contained in the last intergenerational report in 2007 -- 28.5 million by 2047 -- was likely to be well short of the mark.

[myknowledge]

In my opinion, the best way to rejuvenate the population is increased birth rate (not so for the immigrants, so as not to harm the Australian cultural character) until the average is is around 20-25.

What do you think?

http://www.demographicwinter.com/index.html

[tet68]

Viagra implants?

[OldSpice]

“Increased birth rate” is not the remedy, but the desired end-result.

[Verginius Rufus]

...increased birth rate...until the average is is around 20-25...

I don't think most parents could cope with 20-25 kids.

[myknowledge]

I meant the average age of the population. Currently the average age of the population in Australia is around 37. I would like to bring it down to 20-25.

[Verginius Rufus]

I figured you probably didn't mean number of children. Even the "octo mom" has only 14 kids. I had an ancestor who had 21 children but that was by three wives (serial monogamist).

The median age in the US as of 2006 was 36.2 overall (37.6 among white Americans and 30.9 among black Americans).

[AuntB]

I don’t know abut Australia, but we allow in WAY too many senior citizen illegal aliens for this to be any kind of valid argument for bringing down the age rate. If we kept out the mass anchor baby producing aliens, perhaps we US citizens could afford to have more kids. In fact, in California, if you’re an illegal alien senior you will get CASH assistance!

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2330541/posts