Honey, hand me the glasses. Can't see a thing here
Grey New World
It is the irony of life that when you are finally rich enough to afford that Porsche you are so old that you look ridiculous in it. With countries, the irony is that when they finally grow rich, their society grows old so quickly that when they finally go on that dream vacation, the locals sort of look the other way.
Remember the 70s, when Japan was developing so swiftly, becoming richer by the second, that everyone fretted it would just about take over the world? Well, look at it now. It lost its vigour somewhere in the early 90s and is home to the oldest population anywhere. The chart below, which shows the number of people older than 64 per every 100 people of working age (15-64) for 2013, has Japan leading by a wide margin, with 41 old-age dependents. (This has its upside, though. It has stimulated them to develop personal robots and cute electronic pets—which they even send on vacation!) The strain on the pension and health-care systems is huge, and will only get worse before it gets better. And by better we mean when, how should we put it, when the oldie-bulge passes on.
Note: Ratio of older dependents – people older than 64 – to the working-age population – those aged 15-64. Data are shown as the proportion of dependents per 100 working-age population.
Source: The World Bank.
Next comes Italy, that paragon of Catholicism where the Church’s frowning upon contraceptive measures should have devout Italians raising hordes of children. Only that they don’t. Too good use of the calendar method, we surmise. With 33 old-age dependents, Italy is aging with frightful speed. And its economic vigour is none the better for it.
Germany is right behind, with 32 dependents. That it still manages to win world football cups and boast such a spirited economic performance must say something about those good old Teutonic traits, but it’ll feel the pinch sooner than later. (See article in this issue.)
Greece has managed a specially unflattering trick (again): it has grown old without growing rich first. It is up there between Finland and Sweden. Bulgaria, ditto. Two-thirds of the Baltics, in their iron-willed determination to tick all the right boxes for the world's A Club, are also up there. You have to start somewhere.
At the other end of the scale is the United Arab Emirates, with 0 — yes, zero — old-age dependents per 100 people of working age. It’s not that they do away with their oldies. It is the state that takes care of them, financially-wise.
But, as in real life, where some uppity youngsters do manage to get rich before they get old, leapfrogging the Porsche and going directly for the private jet (all those Zuckerbergs), some countries also manage the trick and grow rich, sometimes filthily rich, and stay young nonetheless. The USA, Singapore, Luxembourg, Norway… The pox on them.