Are Oldies still Goldies?

Many UKIP voters have attempted to try to blame the majority of Britain problems today on immigrants.

"They take our jobs"... (We've all heard that one before- its getting slightly tiresome)
"They are the predominant reason why we had this recession"
"They cause youth unemployment"

Although the first two statements are erroneous, I would like to focus on the last statement about "youth unemployment" which again is fraudulent, but I feel many people are starting to be sway by UKIPs schemes, especially the disenfranchised youth , who feel immigrants are taking "their" jobs, but haven't actually looked at the facts of the matter. Hopefully, in this post I can dismantle some of these myths.

Britain, and many other European countries, are ageing populations that rely too heavily on the elderly but an ageing economy can have horrific consequences. An ageing economy will be a slower and more unequal one- unless policy starts changing right now.

The world is on the cusp of a staggering rise in the number of old people, and they will live longer than ever before. Over the next two decades the global population of those aged 65 or more may increase from 600 million to 1.1 billion. Across the rich world, well- educated older people increasingly work longer than the less skilled and employment rates are falling among younger unskilled people, whereas older skilled folk are working longer hours, personally this in unfair on both types of people.

Policy is partly responsible. Many European governments have abandoned policies that used to encourage people to retire early. Rising life expectancy, combined with the replacement of generous defined-benefit pension plans with stingier defined- contribution ones, means that even the very well off have to still work longer in order to have a comfortable retirement. But the changing nature of work, the shift from the Secondary sector to the Tertiary or even Quaternary sector has played a very big role. Pay has risen sharply for the highly educated, and those people continue to reap the riches into old age because these days the educated elderly are more productive that their uneducated predecessors, thus the elderly continue to get more money and salt it away.

A likely response is to impose a higher inheritance tax, so long as they replace less- fair taxes. They would probably encourage people to spend their money (helping themselves and the economy), rather than salt it away. But governments should not focus on redistributing income but on generating more of it by reforming RETIREMENT and EDUCATION.

Age should no longer determine the appropriate end of a working life. Mandatory retirement ages and pension rules that discourage people from working longer should go. Welfare should reflect the greater opportunities open to the higher skilled and pensions should become more progressive.

However, I look at many HICs around the world and its hard to be optimistic.