E-21 The Age War has begun

Ben should be using his vote because he can be bloody sure that Brian will.

The Age War has begun


This was the last two lines of a great article by Andrew Rawnesley in last Sunday’s Observer, which I am only reading tonight because I am always in work.

The article was very close to my heart.

It was all about how the baby boomers are going to bankrupt us lot. And all we have to look forward to at the end of it is no pension and no kids to worry about when we get old. Which boils down to no kids to look after us when we grow old, of course.

I am being extreme. And I don’t really mind because I happen to think seniors are worth looking after. But nowhere is the building problem more evident than in Nova Scotia.

There are currently 95,000 seniors (that’s what we call them in polite Canada, you know them as old people, or aul’ wans, in Ireland) living in Nova Scotia. That’s about 10% of the population. By 2030(?) that will have gone up to about 150,000. And the population of Nova Scotia isn’t going to expand dramatically anytime soon, far from it. The population of under-fives, the people who will be in their mid-thirties in 2030, dropped by one fifth in the last ten years, to just 47,000-ish.

You do the math.

Seniors are expensive.

They need healthcare, long term care, nursing home care, drugs, palliative care, etc.

They get pensions.

They don’t pay much tax.

Young people on the other hand, are cheap. If they don’t contribute you can just ship them off to the Oil Sands of Northern Alberta.

Of course, you don’t get their tax payments then.

You do the math.

So what do we do?

The article in the Observer said that politicians would find it difficult to balance this war of the generations.

Bloody right, they will.

The first thing that needs to be done is for someone, somewhere, to tackle the ridiculous price of drugs.

There is no reason why they should be so expensive. Other than the stock market.

No, there isn’t.

India has a remarkable generic drugs industry that should be examined for ways in which to apply it to other jurisdictions.

The second thing that needs to be done is for a model of community care to be worked out, so that elderly people don’t need as much hospital care as they do now.

That means rethinking workplace models so that 9 – 5 m/f patterns are finally abolished and giving communities some money and time to develop ways in which to care for older and younger members on a more flexible basis so that working age people can work.

Work however it suits the community. Part-time, or for a couple of months a year, or whatever. But the days of one young, fit, educated, experienced person staying at home full-time for years to look after one other person (or maybe two, if there’s enough money), while another person works ridiculous hours in order to deliver a necessary health or educational or other product or service to society MUST end.

I’m going to get it in the neck for that.

I don't care.

The nuclear family is not working. It takes a village to raise a child and a community to care for an elderly person and the reason why we have juvenile crime and scared old people is because we leave it up to hassled stressed parents who aren’t even sure they want to be together anymore to raise their children by themselves.

We should bring in ASBOs that involve sitting talking to old people for six hours a day. That would sort out juvenile crime in ten seconds.

They'd either refuse to reoffend out of boredom, or they'd refuse to leave the stories of the war and the old days because they're so interesting.

The third thing that must happen is that immigration must become more fluid. For chrissakes, I’m a productive member of Canadian society and I can’t even get a credit card. It took three months to get a work permit sorted out. It will take me months more to get a driver’s licence, years to get a mortgage or a health card if I want one.

And I’m one of the lucky ones. I’m not a neurologist driving a cab because the Medical Association ‘doesn’t trust my experience and qualifications’.

Yeah. I believe you. I've been to the conferences.

If this part of the world has skills shortages and a need for people to come and work in the caring professions, then people who live in parts of the world and who want to come here to live and work should be able to without having to become full-time forever residents. They should have portable residencies. Like we do in the European Union.

Think globally, act locally is great for recycling your egg cartons, but sometimes you need to think locally and act globally.

I’m going to bed now – I’m very tired.