Jinn of Quality and Risk

The wealthiest man on Earth, Bill Gates: Like almost everyone who uses e-mail, I receive a ton of spam every day. Much of it offers to help me get out of debt or get rich quick. It would be funny if it weren't so irritating. 

NYT: the median age in the United States in 2050 will be 35.4, only a very slight increase from what it is now. In Europe, by contrast, it is expected to rise to 52.3 from 37.7. The likely meaning of this "stunning difference," as the British weekly The Economist called the growing demographic disparity between Europe and the United States, is that American power — economic and military — will continue to grow relative to Europe's, which will also decline in comparison with other parts of the world like China, India and Latin America. ... Across Europe, only 39 percent of men age 55 to 65 still work, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. Life expectancy in the Western world has been increasing over several decades, and continues to do so, by about one year every four years. At the same time, the legal retirement age has barely changed. This is in effect a new type of inflation and control caused by the welfare state: a limited number of people allowed to work and required to subsidize an ever-increasing number of unproductive, older people. The inevitable result of price control and inflation is a complete disruption of demand and supply, leading to calls for rationing and further invasive price controls. The European Unproductive Aging Population crisis will lead to similar destruction of free markets and reversals of prosperity, unless state intervention in savings and retirement is abolished very soon. For instance, tomorrow July 1st, Switzerland is making it more difficult for people to leverage their pension fund when buying a house. That is price control under a veneer of crisis management (pension funds are running out of money). In the Welfare State, your savings, your pension fund, are not your property: you are told by the government how and when you may dispose of it, if at all (ultimately, increasing taxes will ensure that little is left to you).

My advice to fellow Europeans is to either help change the direction of the ship, or get out while you can. It's getting late.