TIME TO RETHINK AN AGE-OLD PROBLEM

        TIME TO RETHINK AN AGE-OLD PROBLEM

                        Coping with the elderly can be difficult, perhaps nowhere more so than in Germany. An aging population and one of the world´s lowest birthrates have set up the country for a demographic implosion – by 2050, a mere 54.3 percent of Germans will be of working age – leaving German politicians discussing how to overhaul a costly system of social benefits. But a new study pokes a hole in this doomsday scenario. Where most population forecasts focus on the rising median age (the number of years people have lived thus far), Warren Sanderson and Sergei Sccherbov of the World Population Program have chosen to look at the increasing number of years that people can expect to live beyond the current median. Based on these projections, they calculate that a 40-year-old in 2050 will have the same “standardized age” – the same number of years left and the same capacity to work and save – as a 30-year-old in 2010. And they note that upping the retirement age by just a few months each year could be enough to fix the current system without instituting radical changes. For Germany´s soon-to-be elderly, that would be a lifesaver.

                                                                                                          (Newsweek)