A recent major study by the United Nations admitted that ageing is now a worldwide “megatrend” in both developed and developing nations. Demographic Winter is arriving at breakneck speed. Within ten years, there will be over 1 billion elderly persons on the planet, and this will double to 2 billion by 2050 even as global population numbers start to decline.
While this situation poses many problems for industrialized nations, it is the poor nations of the world that will face the greatest human suffering. Most have near to nothing in the way of old age pensions or structures for the elderly.
The report warned that the “most serious impact of ageing populations would be in developing countries without safety nets or adequate legal protection in place for older people,” and pushed for reforms of Social Security type programs, including introducing “national pensions” for the elderly. China, for example, recently adopted an $8 a month national pension for senior citizens. Such small amounts would be laughable if the problem were not deadly serious.
Ironically, many of the over twenty United Nations entities and international organizations which collaborated on the report are the same organizations behind massive population control efforts around the world which have decimated the rising generation now struggling with how to take care of their elderly.
The authors of the report even state, “Informal support systems for older persons are increasingly coming under stress, as a consequence, among others, of lower fertility, out-migration of the young, and women working outside the home.” [Emphasis added.] But in their “Ten priority actions to maximize the opportunity of ageing populations” there is no mention of taking steps to ensure sustained population growth so that there are more workers paying into safety net programs, and more family members around to care for seniors.
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With no population growth, and modern health care allowing more and more people to live into their 80s, 90s and even past their 100th birthdays, it is entirely predictable that government-run health system “death panels” and other culture of death solutions will be found for the surplus elderly “problem.”
LifeNews.com Note: Reprinted with permission from Human Life International’s World Watch forum. Joseph Meaney is the director of international coordination for Human Life International
