How older people will remake the world
It’s no secret that Canadians are living longer and having fewer children. 
But as the ratio of the old to the young grows ever larger, few of us seem to realize how much the effects of an aging population will touch every family, every workplace, and likely shape every public debate over the next few decades.
The aging of the world’s population “pits young against old, child against parent, worker against boss, company against rival and nation against nation,” claims China Inc. author Ted C. Fishman in his new book Shock of Gray.
In fact, those changes are already being felt in most parts of the world, he maintains.
By reporting from areas of the world that are a bit ahead of the overall aging curve, Fishman highlights a host of problems that will soon consume North America.
Is your family smaller than the one you grew up in? What happens when too few young people must support older people? How do shrinking families cope with aging loved ones? What about when countries need millions of young workers but simply can’t find them? How are companies dealing with the brain-drain caused by a flood of retirements? At what point will the young turn on the old?
In the near future, professionals and skilled labourers alike will be pushed out of their jobs before they can afford to retire, he predicts, forcing many into service industries that pay a small fraction of their former salaries.
Rural communities will continue to struggle with acute aging as young people leave for the cities. This in turn will create opportunities for immigrants, thus accelerating globalization – a trend that strikes close to home since most of this country’s population growth can already be attributed to immigration.
And so in Europe, you see the effective retirement age going down, even while the official retirement ages go up. In North America, you see pressure towards early exit from the workforce for late career workers – a trend which is surely going to create unrest among boomers, Fishman warns.
It’s an interesting read. But if you don’t think you can sit still for that long, here’s a recent New York talk he gave.
Have you seen such a demographic shift around you? Is this alarming? Are you prepared?
By Gordon Powers, MSN Money
Is your family smaller than the one you grew up in? What happens when too few young people must support older people? How do shrinking families cope with aging loved ones? What about when countries need millions of young workers but simply can’t find them? How are companies dealing with the brain-drain caused by a flood of retirements? At what point will the young turn on the old?
In the near future, professionals and skilled labourers alike will be pushed out of their jobs before they can afford to retire, he predicts, forcing many into service industries that pay a small fraction of their former salaries.
Rural communities will continue to struggle with acute aging as young people leave for the cities. This in turn will create opportunities for immigrants, thus accelerating globalization – a trend that strikes close to home since most of this country’s population growth can already be attributed to immigration.
And so in Europe, you see the effective retirement age going down, even while the official retirement ages go up. In North America, you see pressure towards early exit from the workforce for late career workers – a trend which is surely going to create unrest among boomers, Fishman warns.
It’s an interesting read. But if you don’t think you can sit still for that long, here’s a recent New York talk he gave.
Have you seen such a demographic shift around you? Is this alarming? Are you prepared?
By Gordon Powers, MSN Money
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Posted by: dave | Dec 17, 2021 12:38:37 AM
scary
Posted by: SP | Dec 17, 2021 6:00:06 PM
So... Millions of Trudea / Cretien voting Baby boomers are going to casually sit back and have their careers taken away to live in poverty and provide positions for third world immigrants? Perhaps Mr. . Fishman should take a few courses in history to see what happens when the comfortable middle classes start to get uncomfortable. I suppose this *could* be the one time in history when things don't follow the usual pattern.
Posted by: Dave | Dec 18, 2021 4:38:45 PM
The seniors, or retirees won't have a choise, they will have to fight back, due to the increase in the real cost of living, and the minute increase that the government increases your pension, which doesn't cover anymore than a loaf a bread a month if you are lucky, we all know that the price of food, rent, fuel, hydro, and gasoline to name a few items have gone up at least 10% in the last year, but seniors will be lucky if their pension cheques are increased by 1%, as last year the increase was about 2/5 of 1%, yes the seniors will have to take a stand. Perhaps if the government tried spending the money they throw away to other countries on the people in Canada, perhaps we wouldn't have the homeless on the streets, and the seniors who have spent their lives in Canada supporting the system ending up in poverty. We once had a great country here, but now it seems people mean nothing, as long as the government looks good to other nations. It's time that charity started at home. It's time the government cleaned up it's own house before it cleans up someone elses.
Posted by: Pete | Dec 18, 2021 6:12:15 PM
As is written by our fore fore fore fathers, wether in the bible or Seeing Sages, we are heading fast forward to a Brick wall, and when we go right though it, its a cliff on the otherside.
Im negative you say, nope. Realistic. Being positive and hopeful is nice to tell children, but in the end wont save you from;
Polution, we have YET to do ANYTHING realistic about it
Income Gaps...what middle class are you referring too??considering the top 1% actually saw their wealth grow during the economic downturn.
So is the youth going to be financially capable of helping the older family members? My baby boomer parents have yet to help out, they have lived it up for the past 20 or so years, they will leave the new generations buried in debt, and so I hope you have a well paid nurse following you around, because its doubtful any of the new generations will be able financially to help out.
When things were starting to get out of control, why didnt the babyboomers stand up then...oooh cause they had it good. So you were BOUGHT to look the other way, and NOW you want the new generations to feel bad about baby boomers ending up in POVERTY
Immigrants DESERVE this country. They (the Boomers) gave it up to individualism, and Greed.
So come on Mom and Pop... its high time you take care of yourselves. Youve told that to the new generations for 20 yrs, as you outsourced, indebted, and automated everyones livelyhood away.
Boomers....(please insert expletive here) YOU
Posted by: Ross | Dec 18, 2021 6:26:04 PM
More unsubstantiated dire pessimistic predictions. Life will continue to go on just fine. Lets not panic over opinion.
Posted by: Paul | Dec 18, 2021 6:33:53 PM
He says in one line we won't be able to find enough workers with the dwindling population. The next line says young people will be pushing olders out of their jobs. uh yeah , can you say fear mongering, paranoid?? Folks will work things out because every generation works for the future eventually. The question is will there be any jobs after all we can do is move around boxes imported from china and the like.
Posted by: Paranormal Freak | Dec 18, 2021 7:48:44 PM
I see that mass movement of populations moving. Those forced to retire without adequate means of income will be forced to move to other countries where the cost of living is cheaper. As the cost of housing goes up due to market forces and perhaps the demand for affordable housing plus the cost of building a home (construction wages go up, supplies such as cement, fixtures etc go up as well) plus rising property taxes will force a lot of boomers / retirees to move to places like Costa Rica, Guatemala, Mexico, Thailand, the Philippines, etc etc where the cost is still affordable for their means. This is already happening now and later on it will only accelarate even more making it worst for governments to compensate for lost tax revenue (Retired workers will not pay income taxes as they do not work anymore, and the lost of property tax revenue due to the real estate market being flooded with mass sales of second hand homes). The only people left will be either new immigrants, refugees and those wealthy enough to afford to live here which is less than 50 % of the population. Still because of the large gap between the wealthy and the poor, it is still possible that the wealthy here have more than enough money since the top 20% wage earners make more than 80% of the whole country's population.
Posted by: Timber | Dec 18, 2021 9:42:17 PM
Lets first start keeping the money in Canada as much as we can. I like what Dave said about how our Government sends millions to other countries while our seniors eat cat and dog food. We give money to immigrants to get started here and next thing u see them lined up at WESTERN UNION sending all there money to the Philippines ,and India. Or they all head across the border and spend so they dont have to pay HST. Those taxes are paying for our roads and schools , and its important to support your local merchants but ohh no lets just take take take and give nothing back. Also a warning to all those businesses paying cash to there employees , i cant wait to see u when u piss someone off and they phone the tax man . He is gonna want all that money back and more and it will probably put u on the street with no money . Remember Karma
Posted by: Steve | Dec 18, 2021 11:48:25 PM
Thankfully people are unable to have a taxpayers strike, or a tax/wealth based Revolution like France or Britain or America or Russia or....
I am sure it will all be fine they said, 'Couldn't possibly happen "In Canada" they said, Things are different this time they said...
Posted by: GUY | Dec 19, 2021 10:54:14 AM
It is a "living cycle" that we will need to adjust to. 40 years ago, Families had 1 parent working and supporting large families. Then, some families had a 2nd parent working part time to enjoy finer things. Then came the grass is greener on the other side society and many families decided to have 2 parents working in order to get nicer grass. It also meant smaller families. The economy was booming because we didn't import from countries like China. Jobs were created here with our comsumption of nicer things. The "me too" society became the norm. All was good so governments offered lots of great safety nets with higher taxes because we could afford it with 2 incomes. However, importing cheaper products from China, Taiwan... was getting bigger with Global Trade. That meant jobs were being lost here thus now creating a lot of this economic turmoil. So how do we keep all the Safety Net Perks like Healthcare, Schooling, EI, Welfare, CPP while we have less jobs and we are taxed much higher to upkeep the standard of living? Something has to give. There are at least 3 options: 1) be taxed more which creates less spending and less jobs 2) stop buying imports even if local items cost more; to create more jobs here 3) start living within our means by buying basic needs. In the end, a bit of all 3 is ideal. Many sacrifices will be needed but what are the alternatives?
Posted by: John | Dec 19, 2021 10:57:43 AM
This is the backbone of a truly strong economy, Minimum wage needs to die, inflation needs to die, investors need to die.
Every necessity of life including rent and mortgages should be run by the government (a compitent honest government) and all businesses should be forced to do true profit sharing (that is where everyone from the ceo to the cleaning crew makes the same wage per hour).
We need to have single income households and put the money back in the hands of the entire population again or this economy will always fail.
Oh and I am all for cultural diservication but if your going to come to Canada to live here then please do us a favor support CANADA and learn the damn language.
Posted by: William | Dec 21, 2021 8:05:35 AM
Don't condemn foreigners for their lack of fluency with the English language. Your use of English is utterly appalling. Your ideas are also ridiculous. You must be a communist. More government control? Honest government? Forced profit sharing? Single income families? What drugs have you been taking? Oh, WTF is "cutural diservication" [sic]?