Bear in mind the Eastern nations don’t have pensions that will cripple them.But China does have many bust State corporations …so a run on the banks might come one day.Essentially the West is’nt as rich as we think it is and this financial crisis is about the balance coming back…ie we go down the ladder and have to work harder.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/12/business/global/12pension.html?ref=global-home
Other countries have obscured their total obligations as well. In France, where the official debt level is 76 percent of economic output, total debt rises to 549 percent once all of its current pension promises are taken into account. And in Germany, the current debt level of 69 percent would soar to 418 percent.
Comically good pensions in Greece..unsustainable..The Germans have said as much…that they are not going to subsidize the Greeks so that they can retire early….:
He is a full-throated proponent of a system that pays him a yearly pension of 30,000 euros, or $41,000, more than he was making when he retired 13 years ago at the age of 60. He has even written a book in defense of it, “The Guide to Granting Civil Service Pensions in Greece.”
Aging populations everywhere except the Islamic countires should be a simple equation except that everyones afraid that the Hijab will be the end of the West.
But its this financial re-orientation that is going to cause that..not the Hijab.Russia ( Prince Rus once considered having an Islamic state )..has a Muslim federacy of sorts already but its Muslim Populations are small in numbers .
We might get a de-population point where anybody with a pair of hands will be begged to migrate .Migration is going to go from hot potato to hot sell.Europe , West , Russia are going to become bakwaters without it.
The Population prophets of doom will be dead by then ..as they tend to be elderly Western folks .
Equation changers will be life expectancy…if we get a pill to extend life..then we get better finances everywhere..more productivity .The balance of wealth will be restored to those that can live longer.
But of for the moment ..the momentum is downhill for the West.The East to follow closely behind.
The ME and Africa grow by default as a result rather than by design.
