Thursday, November 12, 2009
The Dependency Ratio
I know we complain a lot about the older generation living off of the younger generations, but it's going to be a lot worse in other places. Ergo, as a public service to society, I present you the depedency ratios so you know where NOT to move to. Specifically Japan, Italy and Korea (where old people to young people is projected to be about 60%)
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6 comments:
You are a really depressing person. Like, I really respect you and what not... but you truly are.
Whoa, whoa, whoa. I'm not a depressing person. I'm a realist. Thus the stats and charts and data. Life is what it is. I can't help it you're unrealistically optimistic about the future. ;)
It would be nice if these graphs went farther back -- the dependency must have been greater before the flood of women into the work force in the seventies.
The USA beats them all! Everything's fine for you guys over the Atlantic. So, why do you constantly fret about your own country?
;-)
Anonymous,
The problem is that stay at home wives/mothers are supported by individuals not by generous social programs provided by the government. Before women entered the workforce an individual had to provide for his wife and children which was easy because the cost-of-living per unit-of-labour was low, in a large part because house prices were dependant on the wages of one individual rather than two. When you start adding in that a couple has to support their children, their parents, their grandparents, and the welfare case/junkie down the street (while providing them with the most expensive healthcare, education and support systems available) the cost of dependants per unit-of-labour has never been more expensive.
Now, if you live in a country which has ensured that productivity of the average individual has increased so that they can be competitive on the world market while demanding an income to cover these high costs there will be no problem. Unfortunately, most of the western world has built up large unions that ensure that high-school drop-outs doing work that can be off-shored to China/India at $2 an hour earn $76 per hour when wages and benefits are included.
"Man has the soul of a slave."
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