Global study: World not ready for aging population

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP-Excite

By KRISTEN GELINEAU

The world is aging so fast that most countries are not prepared to support their swelling numbers of elderly people, according to a global study being issued Tuesday by the United Nations and an elder rights group.

The report ranks the social and economic well-being of elders in 91 countries, with Sweden coming out on top and Afghanistan at the bottom. It reflects what advocates for the old have been warning, with increasing urgency, for years: Nations are simply not working quickly enough to cope with a population graying faster than ever before. By the year 2050, for the first time in history, seniors older than 60 will outnumber children younger than 15.

Truong Tien Thao, who runs a small tea shop on the sidewalk near his home in Hanoi, Vietnam, is 65 and acutely aware that he, like millions of others, is plunging into old age without a safety net. He wishes he could retire, but he and his 61-year-old wife depend on the $50 a month they earn from the shop. And so every day, Thao rises early to open the stall at 6 a.m. and works until 2 p.m., when his wife takes over until closing.

"People at my age should have a rest, but I still have to work to make our ends meet," he says, while waiting for customers at the shop, which sells green tea, cigarettes and chewing gum. "My wife and I have no pension, no health insurance. I'm scared of thinking of being sick - I don't know how I can pay for the medical care."

FULL story at link.



Read more: http://apnews.excite.com/article/20131001/DA953NHG0.html

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In this Sept. 26, 2013 photo, 80-year-old Marianne Blomberg works out at a gym in Stockholm. Much of the world is not prepared to support the ballooning population of elderly people, including many of the fastest-aging countries, according to a global study scheduled to be released Tuesday, Oct. 1, by the United Nations and an elder rights group. The Swedish government has suggested people continue working beyond 65, a prospect Blomberg cautiously welcomes but warns should not be a requirement. (AP Photo/TT News Agency, Jonas Ekstromer)

[Berlum]

1. "Our solution: shred Social Security, Medicare and Food Stamps. Smirk." - RepubliBaggers, Inc. (R)

"The elders of the world can just pull themselves up by their own freaking wrinkles." - RepubliBaggers, Inc. (R)

[GliderGuider]

2. We wanted longer life expectancies

Nobody said much about the downside.

I guess all you young 'uns had best get busy being baby factories, to balance the population pyramids.

[HereSince1628]

3. Well people did say things...but words could have fallen on 'deaf' ears...

it's part of the often discussed Demographic Transition

This is a population process that accompanies development of impoverished nations from subsistence to industrialized societies.

As impoverished nations development such economies, diet, medical care, and improved hygiene increase very rapidly, and mortality rates at all ages fall markedly.

The result is increase in average longevity...it ultimately creates a big bump in older people, that doesn't go away until the birth rate falls (usually accompanying education of women and their introduction into the industrial workforce).

This is a pretty common topic in social studies and environmental studies. I encountered it at the textbook for the First Environmental Teach-in, and I saw it in my undergrad courses and I taught it to intro bio students and general studies environmental students for 3 decades.

[GliderGuider]

5. The underlying assumption has been that a growth economy would take care of such things.

Oops!

[HereSince1628]

11. That's not true for people who understand the demographic transition

The pyramidal shaped population structure based on growth -is- the explosive in the population bomb.

It's produces the basic structure needed for both a Ponzi scheme and capitalism, which isn't to say those to things are the same, although both exist for profit rewards to a few at the expense of the many.

The problem of transitioning from a pyramidal shaped age structure to a 'column' shaped age structure with stable grown is that survivorship increases more than births decrease, because in these transitions medical advances track increasing affluence more closely than birth rate, which tends to have more slowly transitioning cultural expectations.

The result, during the demographic transition, is both a growing population and a population with larger proportions of older (post reproductive) people. Once the transition is completed the columnar age structure, theoretically stabilizes.

[Aristus]

12. We're achieving the longevity aspect.

Now we need to work on quality of life.

[GliderGuider]

13. I generally advise people to work on the quality of their individual lives.

The world's good times are pretty much over.

[Aristus]

14. That's very pessimistic; I'm not sure I agree.

We can find a solution to this problem that benefits the greatest number of people. We just have to go looking for it.

[GliderGuider]

15. Of course you don't agree.

Not many people outside of E&E would - and not many even in that den of doom.

Given all the ecological damage we've inflicted on the planet, climate change, acidifying oceans, and a population growing by 200,000+ people a day - all of whom want an ever-better material life even in the face of rising food and energy costs - I don't expect our global techno-industrial society to hold together for more than another 20-30 years tops. Given that the long-term sustainable population of the planet looks to be somewhere well south of 50 million human beings, we have a long way to fall.

No, really - how sustainable are we? (Yes, I wrote it.)

You're probably much better off rejecting anything I say out of hand.

[bhikkhu]

4. The GOP response in this country: shut down the government

The recent CBO report made it pretty clear that the only problem we really have here as far as the budget, the economy and social spending, is the aging of the population, which begins to effect the numbers adversely in about 8 years.

There's plenty of sane and practical ways to address it, now or in a few years, but they aren't even talking about the problem. As far as their rhetoric goes, they aren't even aware of the problem...which has become a larger problem in itself. A government hamstrung by a party that won't govern fails everybody.

[BrotherIvan]

6. Ice Floes

I'm sure we all know we can moon over sane countries like Sweden because of their social programs, knowing damn well that their tax rate is over 50% and their military spending is a pittance compared to ours. They also (for now) have a sense of civic priorities while ours has shifted to making sure the wealthy are coddled.

But what the headline should read is that we not only have a booming aging population, but a very sick one, over-medicated by doctors and dependent on the system just to stay alive. In countries like Sweden or China, drugs are a last resort and activities, exercise and diet are strongly favored. Not to mention a vacation/holiday schedule that promotes human needs and sanity over extreme profits.

We've gotten it way wrong, and I'm not sure we know how to get back from here.

[Delphinus]

7. Thoughtful post.

Thank you for this.

[BrotherIvan]

8. Thanks

After battling the healthcare system for my mother, I am so disgusted with it I could spit. When I started being a serious advocate for her, she was on 12 medications, paying over $1200 dollars a month with Medicare and a supplemental. She was given a newly approved medication for osteoporosis (which she did not have) as a preventative that landed her in ICU for two weeks with a pulmonary embolism. She was a step away from dying. When I asked her doctor to help pare down her medication to what was absolutely necessary--not just for cost, but how can anyone get well when they are taking tons of drugs all with serious side-effects--the doctor threatened to drop her as a patient. We ended up getting her down to four with lots of research and monitoring and just by not asking for refills.

Fast-forward to two years ago when she is diagnosed with cancer. She is taking a chemo drug that costs $12,000 a month with a $3,000 co-pay that a foundation helped us pay for. That put her in the hospital constantly for the three months she took it and almost killed her. Her oncologist said she would die in 3-6 months if she discontinued the drug, but she just couldn't take it any more and was bed-ridden because of it. She stopped taking the drugs, lived for another 20 months and died at 80, not of cancer, but from an untreated urinary tract infection. And you know what her primary physician was most concerned about? Her cholesterol!!! Which wasn't even high! We argued about that constantly. She didn't need more drugs.

My lord, doctors for the most part, cannot see the forest for the trees. So my only advice I give everyone is if you are prescribed a new drug, please ask if it's absolutely necessary and if the benefits will actually far outweigh the side effects--drugs they hand out like candy such as steroids and anti-depressants are far more dangerous than anyone realizes. And then be damned sure to ask your pharmacist to triple check the interactions. I can't tell you how many times the pharmacist caught a potentially fatal interaction of drugs prescribed by the same doctor on the SAME day!

Sorry to rant, it's just so frustrating when I hear my young friends rattle off the list of drugs they are on. I'm so frightened for their future health. But that is the world we live in now. Prevention is definitely the best medicine.

[Delphinus]

9. Please, do not be sorry - I am glad you shared your story.

I agree that the health care system needs a lot of improvement. I, too, am dealing with an aging, ill mother, and get so frustrated with the non-communication between doctors and nurses and aides, anon.

I am grateful that I am really not on medication - and tend to stay away from doctors as much as possible. I pray it stays that way. I look at my mom and think how much easier it would be for her if she just went to sleep and never woke up. Her life is full of constant pain, due to her conditions, and I know she doesn't want to live this way.

[BrotherIvan]

10. I'm so sorry for your position

I've been there and it is so very very tough. I wish the best for you and your mother. And please, ask for and accept as much help as you can because it can literally drain the life out of you.

[tavernier]

16. Hubby and I, 70 and 67 both still work

because... boredom? love of job? desire to be needed?

Hell no.

Money.

We like to eat an expensive steak out once a week, and have spending cash in our pockets.

I didn't take a job away from a young person because I'm a nurse, and they panic when I say I may retire, because of the nursing shortage in our town. Hubby took a minimum wage, part time job two years after retirement, working in a guard shack, because no one else applied. He's now up to four days with a raise and benefits.

We helped our kids as much as possible with educations and interest free loans and all the rest of it, and now spoil the grandkids to our heart's content with the occasional trip to Wizarding World or dearly coveted video game or designer purse.

Pardon us for filling up space on this planet, but I'm still enjoying my time and as long as I can be on the giving end (btw, we have a monthly donation set up with our bank for a children's charity) I really don't give a good rat's ass if the rest of the country prefers us to be ground into dog food.

I think we should start the elimination round with the congress, instead.