Posted on by Art Powell

The editors and writers of The Economist news magazine must be ageing and not seeing things too clearly. That is my conclusion after reading their recent special report on the future of elderly people. Another option is that my view of the future is incorrect. The Economist is much more optimistic than I am, I hope they are correct.

I disagree with them on three issues – the future of the economy, the work ethic and financial issues.

Most of their readers probably have a vested interest in continued economic growth and to prosper the magazine needs to support this. And they do.

This blogger figures the current economic problems are related to energy and mineral resources. We have used up the most accessible of these and those which are left take so much energy to extract they are worthless. If this is correct the outlook for the future is rather grim. We can anticipate a lot of human suffering as we have to adapt to a down economy. So far retirees have largely been exempt from this but our time may be coming. Trump, Brexit, Saunders, Corbyn and Macron could all be symptoms of this problem. Lots of people recognize something is not right but do not know what it is.

In recent years The Economist has come up with a number of cute cures for the economic crisis. This time we are going to save ourselves by getting people to work further into old age. This commitment to the work ethic may be good for those whose fortunes and status depend upon getting other people to work for them but if the above analysis is correct increasing economic activity will use up more energy and resources and bring forward the timing of a complete economic collapse. Rather than promoting the work ethic we need to be pushing a leisure ethic in which people get their self identity from doing non economic things such as music, theatre, art or writing a weblog on economics. The Economist talks about a longevity dividend. Should this dividend be more work or more leisure?

One of the features of money is that it gives a person control over resources. Financial obligations left over from the era of prosperity mean some older people have a greater command over current resources than the young. Older people are going on luxury cruises in which a waiter from a third world country puts the pepper on their food while their grandchildren are struggling to find jobs and homes. When the crisis hits pensions and other savings the cruise ship operators will be lobbying for the release from prison of a famous Italian captain so they can put him back to work.

This blogger tends to be pessimistic about the economic future. I figure I was very lucky in the time and place in which I was born and have lived most of my life (1941 and western Canada).

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Filed under: Economics | Tagged: crisis, Economics, elderly, energy, future, minerals, retirees, The Economist, work, work ethic |