--- Erik Reuter <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > America's demographics aren't so hot either, just > not as bad as > Europe's. But that isn't anything to be happy about. > As William > Bernstein puts it, a lot of retired Americans may be > eating Alpo in 20 > years. Probably a lot of people won't be able to > retire. > > http://www.efficientfrontier.com/ef/103/hell4.htm
I'm not in the least happy about it, but I'm not sure what you mean by "not so hot". By 2050, the US's median age is going to go up by something like a year - to around 37, IIRC. That's pretty good. It's not _ideal_, but it's pretty good. Even more importantly, our problem is a matter of scratching along until things get better. My HS graduating class (1997, you old fogies - am I _still_ the youngest person on the list, for goodness sake? :-) for example, was the largest graduating class in US history, the first one larger than the largest of the baby boom. Every graduating class since mine has been larger still. If the US can hold things together from about 2030-2040, it will be fine - the "Baby Boom Echo" will be pouring into the workforce. Europe has no similar salvation waiting in the wings, and that's it's real problem. The US, I predict, will do what it always does - muddle on through by putting the problem off into the future. That's not in any way an ideal solution, but it will sort of kind of work in our case. Europe and Japan, by contrast, simply don't have that option, yet they don't seem to be taking any steps to fix the problem. All of this excluding England, of course, which _has_ fixed its pension problem, and at least has healthier demographics than the rest of Europe, if not as good as the US. ===== Gautam Mukunda [EMAIL PROTECTED] "Freedom is not free" http://www.mukunda.blogspot.com __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? SBC Yahoo! DSL - Now only $29.95 per month! http://sbc.yahoo.com _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
