The hand-wringing over aging populations is too-little but not too late

We built this economy (photo credit - Jesselangham Wikiality)

Every day we are being told the problems of Canada and the United States are too many aging Baby Boomers.

It’s as if they want us to move onto an ice flow and disappear in the Arctic spring.

Well, it’s not our fault if we built the strongest economic boom in history. Through hard work we provided the great standard of living our children would like to inherit without the same amount of effort.  

Aging Canadians could lower national standard of living, says the Bank of Canada.

Boomers, we’ll pay for your retirements, but we won’t be happy about it says the Globe and Mail.

It is true that there will temporarily be a 20% demographic bulge in retired workers versus employed workers. We can’t help that. We worked all our lives and deserve to retire, notwithstanding Stephen Harper’s plans.

Think of the boom years from 1960 to 2010 as a farmer who plowed with two horses. Through a stroke of luck, he had a third horse for 50 years and prospered by growing more crops. His farm will whither and die if he doesn’t replace all three horses before they grow old.

The government wants to cut back on the production. I say get some replacement workers and fast.

The baby boomers didn’t create the problem, although our politicians have ignored the coming worker imbalance for decades. We built this economy. Now do something to keep it going.

The solution is to simply replace us. If we didn’t have enough children, although I did my part with 5, bring in some skilled immigrants who can take over and do the jobs, pay the taxes and fund our social systems.

Canadian Immigration Minister Jason Kenny (Fernando Morales/The Globe and Mail)

I am totally in agreement with Jason Kenny, the Canadian Immigration Minister.

Don’t send us your poor and huddled masses for awhile. Send trained, skilled and employable people from around the world who can help grow the economy.

“It frustrates the hell out of me,” the Immigration Minister told The Globe and Mail’s editorial board on Wednesday. “We’re bringing hundreds of thousands of people into the country to end up, many of them, unemployed or underemployed in an economy where there are acute labour shortages.”

Quebec solution

When Quebec couples decided to enjoy the good life and pass on raising big families, the Quebec government turned to immigration to avoid negative population growth. They tried to offset the dilution of language with French only education for immigrants.

In the Rest of Canada, that’s not an issue. Speak English, have an education and we’ll give you a shot at the Canadian good life.

Social benefits are in the way

Some of the problem of workers in Canada is relocation and social benefits. Did you know PEI imports workers from Russia, Mexico and Europe because local Islanders don’t want the jobs? EI benefits are too high when people turn down good jobs for social benefits. PEI has one of the highest unemployment rates in Canada which would go down if PEI’s EI was the same as the rest of Canada.

Ontario and Alberta understand PEI’s role as the welfare province. “The Atlantic provinces need to get away from their dependence on subsidies and federal money if they ever want to become successful, a speaker told Monday’s Charlottetown Rotary Club meeting.” Federal money not solution for Atlantic economy, speaker warns

But that’s a tiny regional problem. Canada needs more immigrants.