Uncomfortable rethinking

The problem has been put off for a long time, despite the well-known fact that societal and economic adjustments need to made urgently. In many countries the baby-boomers are approaching retirement age.

Healthcare costs are rising since many care-intensive diseases, like dementia, are much more common in the elderly. The relative share of people paying taxes and social security is going down, so that fewer and fewer contributors have to provide for more and more recipients. At the same time we are confronted with volatile capital markets, low interest rates, slow economic growth and high national debt.

Old-age poverty is increasingly looming, just like a shortage of qualified staff is a growing problem. Extending the working life – be it by increasing the pensionable age or finding new forms of work-life balance – seems pretty inevitable.

What solutions are there? How can we rejuvenate our society? Where are the parents of our future children?

On January 12-13, 2012 the first "Berlin Demography Forum" is taking place. Allianz together with federal government departments and political and scientific circles, is offering this event in order to initiate the common quest for solutions.

Michael Diekmann

 
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