I am not sure if it was understood correctly what I said when writing "The
grim truth is that this system is about to collapse, and that the old eat up the young ones alive", I did not mean the old system is eating up the oyung one, but that the old generation is eating up the younger ones. Just to make that clear.
Subman, 20 years ago projections about the generation's collapse in this system where the young found the old ones, have not been that widespread, and well calculated, with very few exceptions, in germany only one politician from the early 80s come to my mind, saying already back then that the pensions in the future of 30 years are not safe for demographical reasons. I also did not talk of the debt ratio here. I talked of that the gap between rich and poor, old and young, is widening dramatically, and that the poor and young ones collapse under the pressure to save money for their future (what many simply cannot afford anymore, it is even more extreme in your country), and still supoorting the old ones who all together have more wealth in the society, but in their group the majority also is poor. They are also put into relation with their main share of the nations wealth by the fact that the demographic balance is shifting towards the old ones, they are forming a bigger and bigger group, so there is no contradiction in saying the older geenration have most of the wealth, and amongst the old, most are poor.
Socialism is not the problem here, because by tendency you see the same developement in the US, which nobody would accuse to be a socialistic country. Many would even argue it is not even a social country (let's not get heavy about that, I quote it just tor the sake of completeness). Both a capitalistic and socialistic system (or a social one, let's remember that social and socialistic are two different things) seem to be ulnerable to the massing of wealth in fewer and fewer hands sooner or later, with finaicial and economical policies concenring inflation, credit levels and debts and deficitary balances (no here we are at it, subman!
) also massively influencing it (I just refer to that long essay I quoted in the other thread "US vs the world", for your convenience:
http://www.currentconcerns.ch/index.php?id=179 .
Saving properly, subman said. Well, I just said several times: more and more people are sent home with a paikcet money as wages that does not allow them to save any money for later times. It is unfair, to put it mildly, to poijnt finger at them and say "your own fault, why don't you save". If with great effort and often witz help of distant familay members living in better situations the money is getting you hardly to the end of the month, and not beyond, then "saving money" is not an option. In many branches of economy, the real income (meaning to calculate inflation out of it, and understanding it as "buying power") has not risen in the past 15 years, but fallen (whereas the wages of top level managers have increased by several dozen percent, in some cases even by hundreds, with the quality of their job not imporving, and often instead having led into chaos, collapse, and on the stockmarkets: annihilation of stellar ammounts of money). Feel lucky if you are in a material position to put money aside for the future, subman. but it is a fact that growing millions of peope simply cannot afford that.
Now see the importance of this economical status of grpowing numbers of young ones concerning family raising. Supporting the old. for the society of our nations, it is a lethal spiral, and in the end there is the great implosion. that is no doomsday-wioshing, and caling sky-is-falling, that is just cool calculation, logic, calm reason.
On a sidetrack, I also want to pojnt at very strong evidence from social science that you starting conditions into live and your job perspectives very very heavily depend on your family'S economical background. It is a fact that sinc elonger time nobody knowing the statistics is denying. The ideals says "work hard, give your best, and you will be rewarded with good chances and income". But only in exceptions from the rule it comes out like this, and then is celebrated as the American dream. But for each winner like this, there seem to be hundreds of loosers. We also know by very convincing research results that your family's background not only influences you furutre chnaces on a material, monetarian level, but alos on a psychological one, becaseu the living conditions you exprrience in your youth form and infleunce your psyche accordingly, and people who have been rejected chnaces and participation in their younger years, tend to have lower self-esteem and opötimism that they can do it when they are older. that is a simple fact about being hman that we cannod escape - it's just like this for many. It is not a question of superficial attitude, but deep-rooting fundamental chnages in your personality that you cannot reverse at will.
But this as a minor view only. The thread's objective is the demographic problem, and communal wealth distribution patterns, and their mutual influencing.