The major economies of the world are on a collision course toward a huge, as-yet-unseen iceberg: global aging. Increased longevity is a blessing, but it carries with it costs and questions few countries wish to deal with. This looming demographic challenge may become the transcendent issue of the twenty-first century, affecting not just our economies but our political systems, our lifestyles, our ethics, and even our military security. In Gray Dawn, Peter G. Peterson, the respected statesman of Washington and Wall Street, sounds the warning bell and prescribes a set of detailed solutions which, if implemented early, will prevent the need for Draconian measures later.
In today's developed world, people aged 65 and over represent 14 percent of the total population. That share will almost double by 2030. In the United States, the 85-and-over set will more than triple. And fertility rates are so low in many developed nations that populations may actually fall to half of today's size before the end of the next century, causing a huge imbalance between the young and the old.
Within the next thirty years, the official projections suggest that governments would have to spend an extra 9 to 16 percent of GDP annually simply to fulfill their old-age benefit promises. The developed world, taken collectively, has already promised future retirees some $35 trillion in public pension benefits--and much more including health benefits--for which no money has been set aside. How countries choose to deal with these mega unfunded liabilities will become the most expensive economic question in world history.
As populations age and decline, will economies decline as well? Will youth remainapathetic in the face of the unthinkable tax bills they will soon be paying, or does generational war loom in our future? What happens as medical progress inevitably confronts increasingly scarce resources? Who lives? Who dies? Who decides? And if older developed countries try to depend on the savings of younger developing countries, how will this change the global balance of power? For business readers, Peterson also discusses where the greatest challenges and specific business opportunities may be had in the economic equation of aging societies.
Passionately pro-youth--Peterson wants future young people to have the same kind of opportunities past generations have enjoyed--and passionately pro-senior ("At 72, I'm a geezer myself") Peterson not only writes about the problem but also provides reforms that would allow us to adapt to these profound changes as humanely as possible. Gray Dawn is an eloquent alarm bell rung in the hope of turning the wheel of mighty economies before it is too late.
Gray Dawn never does things as the others do, or as the others before him.
March had followed the erratically hopping toad across the grass to the gate, where the toad ended the merry chase by slipping into a hole under a post. Vanden, from the tonneau, had viewed with keen interest the slow approach of the ...
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Grey Dawn
The Grey Dawn
This book tells of the period shortly after the first mad rush for gold in California.
It's game on. And she's already two moves behind. Dive in to this exciting adventure today. Praise for Gray Dawn: "A strong female who seems to attract trouble without looking for it.
There, she meets a transgender veteran with the same name as the woman she left behind. This is a story of war, abolition, union, and connections that can last lifetimes.
Reproduction of the original: The Grey Dawn by Steward Edward White
"Evidentiary inference of intent," not the commitment of a crime, got Ms. Carol Sing 36 months in prison and 36 months of probation, or six years of incarceration and the threat of re-incarceration.