How can the problems caused by an ageing population be solved?

Question

The ageing population will cause pensions to go and also cause taxes to inflate

Answer 1

Fertility treatment free to all on the NHS .

(many couples do not have children or have small families because of fertility problems and IVF is so expensive many can't afford to pay privately for it.)

Some professor actually suggested this.

Also more young couples would have children if they could get themselves securely housed and employed first - which in the current climate is a real struggle.  The Government could address this by building more affordable homes (council and social housing) and protecting our job opportunities with decent training and limits on economic migration from the EU.

Answer 2

What do you suggest?  (63 year old granny)

Answer 3

Two words - Soylent Green

Answer 4

As healthcare increases, older people can continue to work longer. I, for one, would be quite happy to continue working past the 'normal' retirement age.

I well remember my grandmother retiring, and how rapidly she went from being a vital productive woman to a withdrawn sickly person sitting in a chair all day. Without the stimulus of work, there wasn't much to keep her interest.

It seems to me that work can be a pleasure which you don't realise until you are forced to leave by shortsighted retirement laws. There is no aging 'problem' if the older population can be allowed to continue working (as long as they wish that is).

Answer 5

remember, the aging 'problem' was created by Regan who stole the surplus our grandparents and parents had put aside for us to meet this issue decades ago.

Regardless of that. Let's implement a voluntary social tax program. If you want to receive benefits, you have to pay a social tax.  This entitles you to health care, aging services, preferential treatment at public educational facilities like state universities, employment during down times, student loans. In other words all the 'bad' things you aren't supposed to have.

Here is the kicker.  Every member of the social tax group has an account. You can increase your account or pay back benefits via volunteer work at the facility. 10% of the staff is permanent, the rest is made of volunteers or those receiving benefits.  

Example. The Social Tax program provided fundamental health care such as annual physical and dental work.  These are done on large scale for efficiency.  

Say med students and nurses borrow from the fund to get through school. They can work down all their debts by working in these facilities for X years at 70% of their market value.  

Another example. A woman has kids and cannot work, so she puts her kids in the social tax daycare and works there so other social tax moms and dads are struggling can have proper child care when they go to work.

It's all quite simple really.

Answer 6

Be careful there, in the future hopefully you too will be part of that aging population.

Answer 7

I didn`t realise my wife and I were a problem, what do you suggest ?????

Answer 8

Get the rich to pay a bit more tax ?.

Answer 9

Soylent Green.  I'm sorry, I just couldn't resist!

Answer 10

A civilised society would pay the tax and accept the neccessity.

Answer 11

Ship them of to the moon and leave the country to the hoodies!

Answer 12

its people who haven't even been born yet, i worry about. they will have to look after todays teenagers & by then the "old" population will be so large that it really will be a problem. they might decide to do away with you all!

Answer 13

I suppose you want to execute all pensioner when they reach the age of 75 ( I'm 66) to save the economy, pension and NHS costs.

remember Brown almost sing handidly ruined the almost self finacing pension schemes run by many companiies.

Answer 14

We will have to figure something out.

Answer 15

Start your own retirement account instead of buying cell phones and ipods, watching stupid movies, wasting your money on video games, alcohol, tobacco, etc, etc.

Answer 16

Can't stop Mother Nature.

Answer 17

What problems? These people have worked all their lives and paid into the system that guaranteed their welfare until death. Just because successive governments have ba****d up the welfare state big time, what do you suggest? Here's mine..... No welfare/healthcare benefits for foreigners, no benefits for those fit to work, deport all illegal immigrants, pull our troops out of phoney wars, tax the seriously rich to the hilt, so what if they bugger off, eradicate tax loopholes employed by same, to name but a few. There would be sufficient resources to care for all the elderly if governments ceased to squander our money. Never before have we been so heavily taxed and never before have we been told there is so little in the pot for those who filled it in the first place. There is money aplenty, we taxpayers just need to get our a***s in gear and let our public SERVANTS know what we want our taxes spent on.    .

Answer 18

we could get ourselves some more immigrants?