Donations are essential to keep Write Out Loud going    

About Jumbo

 

Let us send back every immigrant
And anthem our nationalistic tune 
(and ignore the old white elephant
who stands-unheeded -in the room)

 


This is about the requirement that prosperous consuming countries 
with aging populations will always need contiuous immigration in
order to replenish perishing consumers, replace perishing workers 
(skilled but-mainly-low paid ones), and finance the old age pension
costs of society...If (as is likely) they then adopt the reproducing habit
of the host country and turn into aging societies in their turn..then all
the immigration problems are likely (over time) to recur periodically. 

 

◄ `I`m not a politician`...Trump

Claire`s hair ►

Comments

Profile image

Harry O'Neill

Thu 24th Nov 2016 20:48

I forgot to thank you both for your interest and comments.

Sorry if mine are a bit turgid.

Profile image

Harry O'Neill

Thu 24th Nov 2016 20:40

elPinter and M.C.

Better late than never.

I was surprised to hear that America (To us, the land of the young and go ahead) also has an aging problem. I looked up some stuff on the internet and it was very interesting...Listening to the effect our own perpetual moans about the N.H.S. must have internationally I can now see why the Americans are not so very keen about it.

The point of my blog, is that the root cause of immigration
is low birth rates and the lack of sufficient replacement kids to grow up and become workers (and therefore also
consumers, and taxpayers) in the economy, which leads to the need of substitutes in the form of immigrants to keep the whole caboodle going...This cause of the problem is
studiously ignored in most of the arguments about it.

Barring a huge onset of female broodiness added to an enormous growth of male libido this situation is likely to continue.

I am Just trying to draw attention to it.

M.C. makes some very controversial points (which could set the generations against each other)

Pensions and the N.H.S. are paid for by the re-distribution of income which we call taxation. Large parts of that taxation go to pensioners in the form of pensions and in free health care. We are living longer and more liable to need more care (and our having to pay towards it upsets
us -and our heirs- quite a bit)...But come on Lads! with both rising salaries and house prices we never had it so good- in general - this last thirty or forty years.. (the one`s we poetically rant about are those who have been excluded from the party) with this depression, we`re not
doing so well but that, as the American`s say, `Is the way the cookie crumbles`

M.C. brings up the point of the robotic/electronic effect on redundancy. But at five percent unemployment In both Britain and America there is no redundancy - in fact it is full employment!...The government, by borrowing and increasing the deficit further is keeping the wheels of employment turning. Unfortunately this, cheap money, (and those in work payments causing so much comment) make the achievement of any kind of real `productivity`
(in economic terms) impossible, so how we`re going to fare in the big, tariff-free world of Brexit (and keep full employment) is quite a question.

Maybe the word is not uncertainty - but impossibility?

The question of how we share the fruits of increasing automation among ourselves in the future is going to
take a lot of thinking about.


Profile image

M.C. Newberry

Tue 22nd Nov 2016 17:04

Interestingly, whilst "the old" are targets for failures to
organise a system - the NHS springs sprightly to mind,
(like a lot of pensioners I know...far removed from the
hospital queues "they" would have us believe are full of
them and not the non-productive liquor swilling, fast food
binging reality)...today sees many older folk usefully and
efficiently employed putting their patience, experience
and good humour to use in improving the workplace when
the younger worker faces being made redundant over
time by the rapid increase in robotic/electronic labour
that does what human hands were needed to do...once
upon a time.
As for the cost of the elderly "non-workers", this should
have been catered for by the govt. demands that they pay in over their working lives for just such a foreseen eventuality. If I ever enter a care home, my pension
will surely be seized upon to pay the fee - now "private"
and conveniently brushed aside by any official
recognition of a duty of care from past contributions
during a working life. Today's society has too many
taking but not contributing...no way towards thrift and
self-support for the future. Someone has to pay...guess
who?!

elPintor

Mon 21st Nov 2016 21:28

I don't want to get too far off the subject you raise--it will be interesting to see how this plays out as more and more baby-boomers begin to disappear from the counts of "consumers" and "workers". However, I couldn't help but be reminded of Disraeli (quite possibly his quote, anyhow)--"there are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.." Seems to be a great comment on how numbers can be used to distort facts for either side.

Anyhow, as I wanted to say, there's quite a bit of worry in the states as to how we're going to pay for elderly "non-workers" because they say Social Security will become insolvent before long (how long, who knows?) I can't help but wonder if some of this scare is meant to boost investment in privatized retirement plans..there's lotsa money to be made and lotsa stock brokers are making a killing.

elP

If you wish to post a comment you must login.

This site uses cookies. By continuing to browse, you are agreeing to our use of cookies.

Find out more Hide this message