The "Graying of America"

Barnpreacher · #1 (**permalink**) 12-09-2007, 11:26 PM

John J. Davis in Evangelical Ethics: (p. 64-5)

Quote:

The "graying of America" has ominous implications for the Social Security system. As an editorial in the Wall Street Journal put it, "In 30 years or so, the baby boom bulge will start trading in its Perrier for Geritol." In 1950 the ratio of workers paying into the system to retirees drawing benefits was 16 to 1. Today the ratio is 3.5 to 1. By the time the baby boom generation is ready to retire, the ratio will be down to 2 to 1. Increasingly heavy tax burdens will be placed on younger workers to keep the system solvent. Heavier tax burdens are a sure-fire recipe for social conflict. According to Professor Peter Drucker, an asture observer of sociel trends, "The conflict between older and younger people, rather than between management and labor, will be the central social conflict of the next 50 years."

The aging of the American population has serious implications not only for the Social Security retirement system, but also for Medicaid and Medicare. Older people tend to require more medical care than do the young, and with a higher proportion of older people in the population, that means greater medical costs for the society as a whole. The problem is exacerbated by both increasing lifespans and the high costs of "high-tech" medical care.

Present demographic trends could also have an adverse impact on the labor market. The retirement age group is growing at a rate almost four times that of the population as a whole. More and more workers will be leaving the employment "pipeline" at the retirement end, and fewer will be entering employment. Beginning in 1983, each successive graduating class was expected to be 2 to 3 percent smaller than the previous one, while retirement losses were expected to grow to 6 percent a year. Shortages of younger skilled workers for entry-level positions were considered likely as a result.

The shrinking number of young people aged 15-24 also has serious implications on the armed forces. As an article in The Futurist notes, "With lower unemployment and higher wages in store for the baby-bust cohort, the armed forces will find it even more difficult to attract and retain recruits in the coming years." In order to maintain the armed forces at their present levels, either higher salaries will be needed, which would imply higher taxes, or else the idea of an all-volunteer armed forces would have to be reconsidered. Neither idea is socially appealing or politically popular.

I thought these were interesting remarks. And it's all because this ungodly generation refuses to obey Gods' creation mandate to, "Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth..." People want to call the Bible archaic, but it is alive and well and still knows more than any liberal humanist who thinks they know what is best for this world. "Happy is the man that hath his quiver full..."