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Posted on 04/04/2007 9:58:32 PM PDT by MinorityRepublican
CANBERRA (Reuters) - The Australian government's plea for couples to have more children, with "one for mum, one for dad and one for the country," has helped slow the aging of the nation's population, Treasurer Peter Costello said on Monday.
But Australia still faced slowing economic growth and a significant budget shortfall in 40 years due to the demographic impact of the aging population, Costello said.
"Demographic changes are still working against us," Costello said in an address to the National Press Club as he released a government analysis on the impact of an aging population.
He said Australia was currently enjoying a "demographic sweet spot" with the number of working age people, or those between 15 to 64, higher than at any time in the past 40 years.
But he warned that the numbers were set to decline from 2010.
The analysis, by a range of government agencies, said the number of Australians aged 65 or older is set to double by 2047 to 25 percent of the population, while the number of people aged 85 or more will triple to 5.6 percent of the population.
At the same time, the number of working-age Australians is set to increase only marginally, and will fall as a proportion of the population, putting stress on the nation's health and aged care costs and leading to lower economic growth per capita.
Costello said in 2007, there were five people of working age for every person aged 65 or older, but by 2047, there will be only 2.4 people of working aged for everyone aged 65 or more.
MORE BABIES NEEDED
Costello said progress was being made on increasing the birth rate, with women now having an average of 1.8 children compared about 1.7 five years ago.
But that meant Australia was still well below the 2.1 births per woman needed to ensure the population replaces itself.
"The fact is that the lower fertility rates of the 70s, 80s and 90s are still winding their way through the system. The large population bulge caused by the post-war baby boom is moving through the population and heading toward retirement," he said.
The latest projections suggest Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per person is set to increase by 1.6 percent on average over the next 40 years, compared to 2.1 percent over the past 40 years.
Costello said the aging of the population will force the cost of health care to double to 7.3 percent of GDP by 2047, while aged care costs would rise to 2.0 percent of GDP from 0.8 percent in 2006/07.
By 2047, government spending was expected to exceed revenue by about 3.5 percent of GDP, leading to big budget deficits.
The government has targeted the aging population by offering $4,000 to the parents of every new-born child, by encouraging workers to stay in the workforce beyond the usual retirement age of 65, and by encouraging workplace flexibility and productivity.
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Australia has lots of Muslim immigrants from Lebanon. They have large families.
Need more babies?? Just open your borders to Mexicans and offer them all the entitlements the USA gives them...
I could soooooo get into that.
Abortion offsets are needed.
Well heck, Mexico has lots of nice Caltholic pobracitos to send Australia. Socialized medicine, free assistance, and lots of work. Hey, we have a few in California that might volunteer too...
This is one of the few topics upon which Buchanan is absolutley correct in terms of how this phenomenon is working AGAINST Western civilization.
Once a society no longer belives that it NEEDS children to survive and has a plethora of “distractions” and a certain level of discrtonary wealth to dispose of, you get the result the West is seeing today. This is why Roe v. Wade was such a turning point for this country.
I hated reading this book. It was like a slow motion decent into despair from which it was obvious that there was going to be no happy ending. Either our culture has to “find” itself in it’s Judeo-Christian roots and reject the “self” as the center of existance, or we imoprt replacement bodies to make up the difference. It seems we’ve chosen the latter (easier) course of action. This is not the kind of thing that changes overnight, however; it’s taken us quite a while to get here.
At this point I believe only a cataclysmic event or “trigger” will turn this boat around. Something “bigger” and more local than a terrorist attack, even a nuclear one. A real schizim within this country’s cultural course might do it. Say, a match-up between the South and Midwest against the West and North East over the choice between surrenduring to the demands of a Islamofacist threat or not. We’ll see it happen in Europe first so we’ll have a prewiew, at least.
Corrected title: "Australia says aging population needs less murdered babies"
MORE massive denial of reality by the enabling media. Abortion clinics remain the Elephant in the Room of declining populations in the West. 45 million American murdered babies since 1973. I suspect analogous data for Australia, probably 5 million murdered Australian babies over the last 35 years.
The US should deliver them.
bttt
Even a broken clock is right twice a day.
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