That is true, however it won’t be the case that there will be nothing left – just not as much. With all the uncertainty about it, I get the feeling that it is just easier for people to ignore than for us to discuss the risks – which is a pain.

@Seamus Hogan

That is very true – also compared to Europe and the such our demographic trends are quite different, in fact ours look a lot more favourable.

However, there is still an underlying long-term issue that just isn’t being touched – either because the electorate doesn’t want to think about it, or doesn’t know about it. I genuinely don’t know how to get people thinking about these issues in society …

@rauparaha

You’ll have to get those kids out first mate, then you can think about getting them working. You should inform your partner 😉

I don’t disagree that we should take demographics seriously before they really start to bite, but one shouldn’t take the comparison with the U.S. too far. Their demographic problem is way more serious than ours, not because their fertility and mortality patterns have been sharlpy different from ours, but because their public health-care obligations rise much more steeply with age than do ours. This is for the simple reason that the majority of U.S. citizens don’t become eligible for public health funding until they reach the age of 65 and are eligible for Medicare.

Of the options detailed for dealing with this problem, I think we should look at means testing pensions as well as raising the entitlement age. And more importantly bring in a land tax and if not a land tax then a capital gains tax.