Aging European populations
The Washington Post has an article on the fiscal problems created in Italy by the aging population, here: "Older, but Not Better, in Italy Despite TV Show's Celebration of Aging, Pensions Draining System ". The entire developing world faces similar problems. Longer life spans, earlier retirement ages, declining birth rates, all reduce the ratio of workers to retirees, increasing the pension or social security burden on each worker.
- "...But Italy as a whole is not so much celebrating the elderly as ruefully trying to figure out how it is going to care for and feed a population that is Europe's oldest. With birthrates low and life spans growing longer, more and more people are entering Italy's generous pension system -- and money is running out. Already, more than 40 percent of income tax revenue is spent on supporting Italians in retirement.
"It is a pan-European problem. The more money spent on pensions, the less is available for other social service outlays, not to mention defense and infrastructure. To try to make ends meet, France has raised the number of years government workers must stay on the job to receive a full pension from 35 years to 40, like most workers in private enterprise. By 2012, this number will rise to 42 years for everyone.
"In Germany, Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder wants to increase the minimum retirement age from 65 for men and 60 for women to 67 for both sexes. Austria's parliament has passed a complex series of reforms that will raise both the minimum number of work years required to get a pension and the minimum age for pensioners. Austria is also gradually abolishing systems that permit workers to retire early; the average retirement age in Austria is 59 for men and 57 for women..."
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