08/10/2004 1:25:22 pm
Old Europe - New System. We live longer, which is a great success for humanity. But the government′s systems for health care, elderly care and pensions are constructed for another reality. When the pension age of 65 was introduced in Sweden, life expectancy was 55. Now, the real pension age is 58 and we live, on average, for 80 years. This development is a fact in many countries, particularly in western Europe. In Italy, for example, the working-age population will fall from today′s 39 million to 22 million in 2050. The Economist recently published an article that claimed that Germany will have to have an immigration of 3,6 million people every year until 2050 - just to keep today′s ratio between the working and the supported. That is 180 million immigrants! In Spain, pensions will account for 80 per cent of the public expenditure by 2030 if the systems are kept unchanged. These things portray an unsustainable system. The demographic development is a promise of a longer and healthier life. But big government makes it a problem. We have to change our view about what working age is, limit government size and increase private responsibility. That is the only way to make the promise come real.