THE CANBERRA TIMES | Must-read opinion piece: Now, if someone had said to me a couple of weeks ago that a 77-year-old is to take the helm of your yacht and race with you in the Clipper Cup. I would have said, No way. I mention this anecdote as I have just read an incisive paper prepared for the Monash Centre for Population and Urban Research by Katharine Betts and was contemplating it during the race (on the downwind section, of course). The paper is a welcome antidote to the poisonous doomsayers who propagate the theory of unsustainable ageing and unsustainable blow-outs in health costs. The doomsayers arguments are that the portion of working people is falling and the portion of aged dependants is rising; that the burden of the aged with their pension and healthcare demands will outstrip the capacity of the dwindling number of workforce-age people; that we need mass immigration to stop the ageing population. Betts demolishes these arguments one by one.
Posted on: Sat, 24 May 2014 04:04:06 +0000
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