#Older_people contribute economically through grandparenting and voluntary work, but we shouldn't measure their value by economic growth

Link to article in the Sydney Morning Herald

 

A useful Australian comment questioning the assumption that the growing proportion of older people in many societies is going to be a problem over the next few decades. The article suggests that the figures show that immigration can't solve the problem of keeping the population young enough to keep a Western economy growing. Also, you shouldn't assume that all older people stop working at 65, as many statistics do. They often keep on earning, at least part-time, and trends in pension provision (or more accurately, non-provision) will encourage older people to go on working.

The problem with this view, however, is the assumption that economic growth is the be-all of society; perhaps not. And in any case older people contribute to the economy in all sorts of ways, by spending their pensions, which after all are only deferred income, but perhaps most of all by their contributions in free child care for their grandchildren and by using their time in voluntary work.