Aging Population, Low Birth Rate Will Place Massive Economic Burden on Younger Canadians: Report

OTTAWA, June 18, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A report released on Friday in the Canadian Economic Observer by Statistics Canada states that the increasing number of aging baby boomers will cause a major decline in overall worker participation within Canada.

The recent demographic study reveals that the labor force, that is, the number of workers aged 15 and over, will continue to increase over the next few decades. The labor participation, however - that is, the proportion of labor workers to retired persons - will experience a drastic decline.

The study predicts four possible future scenarios in which the labor force increases significantly over the next 24 years as the population increases. According to the most positive scenario, by 2031 the labor force will increase by 22.9% from 2005, to 21.8 million in total.

Regardless of all four situations, however, a sharp decline in labor participation is inevitable after the year 2031, the report concludes. Even with increased immigration and a higher birth rate within Canada, the proportion of workers to retired persons will change dramatically.

At present, there is a ratio of approximately 4 workers aged 15 and over to every retired person. By 2031, however, the ratio will have declined to approximately 2 to one.

In just over two decades, the report continues, the labor force may only include 58% of the population. In Labrador and Newfoundland, it could be as low as 45%. This is down from 67% of the total population in 2005.

Laurent Martel, population analyst for Statistics Canada and co-writer of the report, told LifeSiteNews.com that the study shows a change in demographics only and makes no specific predictions about future effects on the individual or the family.

As the baby boomers start hitting retirement age, logically more and more people will be relying on the Canadian Pension Plan. The ratio of workers to retired people is decreasing, and soon a relatively small number of people will be forced to carry a heavy economic burden. This will make it increasingly difficult for families to survive financially and may influence future ethical decisions regarding issues like euthanasia and suitable old age care.

The report also failed to mention that abortion and contraception, and the consequent dearth of population, are the most fundamental reasons for the current economic crisis. In Quebec, for example, the province with one of the highest abortion and contraception rates, the GDP will shrink to half its current level within the next ten years (see http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2005/oct/05102501.html).

Likewise, any proposed solutions habitually fail to address the issues of abortion, contraception, and the dangerously low birthrate, and little mention is ever made about the possibility of exploring means of encouraging families to have more children.

Laurent Martel proposed one possible economic solution to the current crisis, telling LifeSiteNews.com that, "In the forthcoming decades, the Canadian economy will have to rely more on productivity gains rather than employment gains. The overall participation rate will decrease in the forthcoming decades despite higher levels of immigration and despite higher participation rates among older workers."

These words paralleled the comments of David Dodge, President of the Bank of Montreal, who discussed similar facts in a speech to the St. John's Board of Trade last week.

He commented that the economy has grown in recent decades as the working-age population increased and more women entered the work force. Now as the trend reverses and numbers are declining, population productivity must increase. People are encouraged to work more years, rather than retiring at the mandatory age of 65. Already several provinces have discarded the retirement age regulation.

Rates of decline may slow down, said Dodge, because "the nature of work is changing: it's becoming less physical and more service-oriented. And people are remaining healthier later in life."

"As life expectancy increases, people may want to remain in the workforce longer. In addition, strong demand for labour in the economy might make it more attractive for older workers to remain in the labour force."

Agreeing with past studies of population trends, the report clearly shows that economic growth must be based upon productivity rather than sheer numbers. Forced to work harder and longer, people will have less recompense in both time and money.

See Statistics Canada Report http://www.statcan.ca/Daily/English/070615/d070615b.htm

See full Speech by David Dodge http://www.bank-banque-canada.ca/en/speeches/2007/sp07-13.html

Study Shows More Immigration Won't Fix Demographic Implosion in Canada http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2006/sep/06092706.html

Canada in Population Crisis: Seniors to Outnumber Children in a Decade http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2005/dec/05121504.html

Canada - Our Suicidal Northern Neighbor http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2006/nov/06111012.html

"Aging Population, Low Birth Rate Will Place Massive Economic Burden on Younger Canadians: Report

What a joke!

By the time that happens in Canada, the US job market will already have been saturated by workers from the south of our border and live up to their nickname of "Migrant Workers" and will in turn be migrating north of the border for higher paying jobs than they can get in saturated America.

Of course this scenario would all be shot to hell if the North American Union becomes a reality and only the cheap labor is employed and the native born Americans are sitting around on welfare wondering what happened.

Oh well, time will tell what will happen.

Word to the wise: Don't trust the government in this matter.

Now that people are waking up to the reality that abortion is not a ‘single issue’ nor is it confined to arguments of morality and religion but rather demographics and entitlements, the next tie-in is to examine causes of abortion decisions.

Abortion decisions fit mostly into four categories based on:

Age - too old, too young
Health - women and fetus, mental, trauma such as rape
Economics - fear of poverty, no family/society support
Political - belief in overpopulation, hatred of humanity

Whether these categories are thought to be legitimate, moral, reasonable and so on is another debate.

What is important to the subject of this thread is the economics category which forms the bulk of abortion decisions.

And the economics basis of an abortion decision is directly related to the high taxation policies of Caucasian cultures.

High taxation has forced mothers out of the home and into the workplace.

Present levels of taxation were present in history only in times of war. Today’s levels existed throughout the 1980s and 1990s when the nation was not at war.

Look at a quick sum of US tax levels based on moderate incomes:

Income tax 16%
FICA (both sides) 12.4%
Medicare 2.4%
Embedded product taxes 23%

Typical State taxes
Sales tax 6%
Property tax 4%

I have not included state income tax or registration taxes.

The total tax load on a moderate income couple is about 60%.

And it is projected to get much worse. Since 1996 the CBO has projected a 85% tax load. The government individuals that collect the data and crunch the numbers know that the projected estimates are accurate and they know personally that it cannot be achieved.

The Federal Reserve creates money from nothing and causes inflation. They have been monitoring inflation to assess the impact of the money creation activity or better known as monetary policy.

Inflation is a tax.

The government and the Federal Reserve (which is not federal in any sense) are experimenting with flooding markets with money (or as they call it liquidity) without causing rampant inflation in food and necessities. They do this because the alternative is to raise taxes.

So from a government point of view:

1. Raise taxes and risk a revolt or a spate of non-compliance

2. Create money and dilute existing value of dollars (inflation tax). For example pay social security recipients in borrowed (created) dollars or pay any government bill in borrowed (created) dollars, created by the Federal Reserve. Write an IOU to the next generation while watching where prices rise.

And prices have risen, especially in housing.

So what we recognize is that our excessive taxation has rendered the American population stressed to the point that many American mothers simply cannot get the comforting assurance needed to bring children into the world.

The result is we have many jobs and too few workers, which many are convinced reflects a great economy. And as people are living longer, we have an aging population.

France’s tax policies are actually more sympathethic although we have been conditioned to think they are highly taxed, the fact is we as Americans are taxed more in total. Our taxes are hidden in many strata and in many categories. France’s tax policy is sympathetic to families, so much so that the birthrate in France is healthy.

I am not arguing that life in France in great, I am just pointing out to ourselves that we should not criticize them for high taxes when we ourselves have higher taxes in total, and that they are not experiencing an age demographic crisis as we are.

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