Vivian A. DSouza wrote: I believe that all of Europe is in trouble or heading for economic troubles with
their extensive social welfare programs and pension burden, and a demographic structure weighted towards the elderly. Japan is in a similar situation. As the percentage of the elderly in the total population continues to grow,the burden falls on a declining population of working age adults. The solution to the problem as the Greeks are finding out is very unpalatable. So PIGS, PIIGS and more............. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Bwana D'Souza, The solution to this problem is simple. The govt should offer its citizens the choice of: 1) Taxing the citizens and investing those taxes in a retirement plan. or 2) Allowing its citizens a tax break for investing their savings in their self directed individual retirement plan. Either way, your old age/pension benefit is directly linked to your contributions. Canada, and the US to some extent, have these plans in place. The way to bankrupt a country is to have a plan that uses the contributions of those who are working, to pay for those who are not. When the topic arises on what should be the priorities of tax expenditure. I am totally with the idea of: 1) Education 2) Health 3) Old age security In this regard, the European countries are way ahead in the quality of life index. The govts there may be broke but the residents in Europe enjoy a far greater quality of life than their counterparts in N. America. As a last resort, a govt can always print money to pay its bills. If I am not mistaken, this is the reason why all currencies today are depreciating. The pigs situation is now in Europe. It will soon rear its ugly head in the US where 33 states are already broke. Paul D. Octopus
