Policy Challenges

Dept: The world is on the threshold of what might be called peak people. The world s supply of working-age people will soon be shrinking, causing a shift from surplus to scarcity. As with peak oil theories which hold that declining petroleum supplies will trigger global economic instability the claims of the doomsayers are too hyperbolic and hysterical. These are not existential threats but rather policy challenges. That said, they re very big policy challenges, according to Globe and Mail. But population aging will affect us in far more profound ways, because it is global and but the consequence of smaller families is fewer young people. And family sizes have plummeted so fast, around the world, that working-age adults are being outnumbered by seniors and children, who tend to be dependent on state funds for their health, education and livelihoods. Canada s crisis is mild compared to most countries, but it s still serious. There are currently almost five working-age Canadians whose income taxes pay the pension and health-care costs of each retiree; within 20 years, there will be only three. As a result, according to Ottawa, health-care costs will double and social-service costs will rise by a third. Compared to, say, Japan, where pensioners will become a majority this century, that s nothing. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.