UK economy comes to a standstill

stonethrower

Quote:
Originally Posted by Generali
People aged over 60 in the UK outnumber children for the first time, according to official figures. The Office for National Statistics revealed that 13,262,256 people were 60 or over in mid-2007 - up from 12,928,071 the previous year.
Meanwhile, the number of under-18s fell from 13,119,654 to 13,111,023 over the same time period.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7575869.stm

It's just as well I'm off to Aus! If I'm going to be unemployed and broke, I might as well do it on the beach.

giving some serious thought to this as well

the economics of this country are never going to stack up in 10 years time

there are going to be far too many old people

I often wondered about this as well not just this country what about China with its 1 child policy in a few years there the old will far outnumber the young

wymondham

Generali wrote: »

Having said that, in the UK if you go to weed the garden you can be reasonably sure to make it back alive, not necessarily the case in Aus.

:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

justpurchased

stonethrower wrote: »

I often wondered about this as well not just this country what about China with its 1 child policy in a few years there the old will far outnumber the young

You can now see why the govement likes imigration perhaps a on tap supply of people old enough to work with a high chance of them leaving the country before retirement. Just a thought

Chris2685

It is fairly short sighted of China isn't it. In order for the old (+60/65) and young (-16/18) to be supported you need a larger base of people in the middle of those two. Looking at trends of birth in countries such as the UK, we are not producing enough people to pay taxes to support people who don't.

Generali

Well China introduced the one child policy in 1979. If one assumes an average age of a parent in China to be 25, that mean that in about 10 years time we can expect to see the ratio of retired:working start to rise dramatically in the next 5 years or so and start to take another jump 5 years after that (retirement ages in China at present are 55 and 60 for women and men respectively).

China will have to raise the age for retirement, accept very high levels of absolute poverty amongst the old or accept very high levels of taxation.

adr0ck

Generali wrote: »

Having said that, in the UK if you go to weed the garden you can be reasonably sure to make it back alive, not necessarily the case in Aus.

i read somewhere (a while ago) that there hasn't been any deaths from spider bites since the end of the seventies and there have been approx 40 deaths from snake bites over the past 25 years (more likely to die from horse riding)

justpurchased

Generali wrote: »

Well China introduced the one child policy in 1979. If one assumes an average age of a parent in China to be 25, that mean that in about 10 years time we can expect to see the ratio of retired:working start to rise dramatically in the next 5 years or so and start to take another jump 5 years after that (retirement ages in China at present are 55 and 60 for women and men respectively).

China will have to raise the age for retirement, accept very high levels of absolute poverty amongst the old or accept very high levels of taxation.

I think the other side of the coin was over population and the poverty and drains on resources that brings. Rock and a hard place realy.

Generali

adr0ck wrote: »

i read somewhere (a while ago) that there hasn't been any deaths from spider bites since the end of the seventies and there have been approx 40 deaths from snake bites over the past 25 years (more likely to die from horse riding)

The first time I went there, a dead redback was found in a baby's crib. I thought that if that's rare enough to make the newspaper (Sydney Morning Herald no less) then it must be rare.

Apparently you have to be pretty weak already for the spiders to finish you off and generally you need to go out to the middle of nowhere to see snakes.

Shark attacks are rare too.

Salties are the things that worry me. That and road train drivers.

neverdespairgirl

Are you thinking of emigrating for good, or going for a long visit?

dopester

Interesting that Australia and China should get merged in this discussion.

I'm not an expert on the Aus economy but would imagine bleaker times if and when China and India slow-down and the Aus resource boom begins to decline.