God bless socialism, or what of it we use

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I was told quite candidly in school that the chance of getting a decent government pension when I retired was about that of a snowball in hell.

 

@joacqin

Man, I've been explaining myself poorly lately. Just as I did with Harbourboy, I failed to make my point. I was speaking, in general, of birth rates, despite the fact that I completely failed to mention it in my previous post. In the U.S., the average woman gives birth to 2.1 children in her lifetime. However, the numbers are much higher for minorities and immigrant families than in people whose families have lived in the U.S. for years. The typical white Americans have birth rate numbers much more similar to those of many European countries - around 1.5 per female, which as the number suggests, is not even replacement level.

I do not have the source because I saw this some time ago, but I was under the impression that the births per female in Europe are extremely low, most notably in Italy and Spain. I believe Italy was something like the average woman only gives birth to 1.2 children in her lifetime, which is far, far below replacement levels.

But you are right in that many Americans have a problem with illegal aliens crossing the Mexican border to work in the U.S. I don't really have a problem with that at all because A.) They take the poorest paying, worst condition jobs in the U.S. that most Americans don't want anyway, and B.) They pay taxes to the U.S. government while receiving none of the benefits.

 

Wouldn't that only be true if they were paid under the table? I mean, if you get a standard pay check where you work, wouldn't taxes automatically be taken out of it? I've never worked anywhere that I didn't have taxes taken directly out of my check. Sure, under the table they aren't, but I'm assuming many of these people work janatorial jobs, or in the farming industry, etc., all of which would give out standard paychecks.

 

And when you consider that it was only 30ty years ago, that (South) Italians still were emmigrating because of their high birth-rates.

I bet that we will see soon the retirement age set to 70 or higher. And it should be this way. This is quite fascinitating, as Europe is the first post-industralized continent and we are crossing into unkown territority, as we are the first to reach this stage.

Besides the pension, the other consequenses are far more intersting, yet way harder to grasp. How will the high-age workforce change the economy. Will old people have lower productivity and therefore spell the sundown of the European economies, or will (if persued) their potential of having more skills and knowledge acquired level out their "slowness". How will being old be. There was a book recently released, with the topic that 50 is the new 30, asserting that people not only get way older then in earlier times, they alos stay much younger and healthier now compared to their parents and grandparents. While others say, that without the vigour and agility of youth, there's no way our economies can stay competitive.

Or what about the houses, the streets, the supermarkets... all empty ?

I wonder.