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Tackling the Ageing Syndrome
| As populations age in many countries all over the world, fewer prime-aged people will be there to care for more of the elderly. Increasing pension and medical care expenditures will raise governments’ (or families’) financial burden. Higher taxation on earned income to cope with the increased financial burden runs the risk of impairing incentives to work and the willingness to learn and qualify for life. | |
Thus policy makers must tackle a three-pronged syndrome: pension systems, health care and employment for all. We cannot design a pension system without reference to the health care costs and to the overall employment conditions; nor can we design a health care system or regulations on labor markets without taking their influenced on financing pensions into account. What joint reforms of pension, health and employment systems would enable ageing societies to maintain (or even increase) the living standards of all? How is the effectiveness of these systems interconnected? Should these systems encourage the elderly to prolong their working lives and how should they do it? How can they also motivate the working-age population to work and acquire skills? What organizational and management innovations can help integrate elderly workers in employment? What are the means to encourage life-long learning? | |