No Country for Old Men

Age ain’t nothing but a number. But the same can be said about national GDP, employment rates, retirement accounts, social security payments, and world economy rankings. And the age number affects all the other numbers. One of the reasons that world powers are world powers is because they have large working age populations. As those populations age, it means fewer workers and more elderly populations to support. NYT (Gift Article): How a Vast Demographic Shift Will Reshape the World. “The projections are reliable, and stark: By 2050, people age 65 and older will make up nearly 40 percent of the population in some parts of East Asia and Europe. That’s almost twice the share of older adults in Florida, America’s retirement capital. Extraordinary numbers of retirees will be dependent on a shrinking number of working-age people to support them. In all of recorded history, no country has ever been as old as these nations are expected to get.” What an economic drag it is getting old.