When I read the press release from Statistics Central of Sweden, i was gobsmacked. Effectively speaking, it says that 1 in 10 Swedes are supported by the state. Now remember that this state supported person is aged between 20-64 years of age. ok? The total population of Sweden is about 9 million.
So given that the life expectancy in Sweden is way over 64 years, you also have a huge lump of people who are either retired or are children, both of which are currently being suported by about 73% of the population in this age between 20-64 years of age.
In other words, about 4.2 million are in work. About 2 million are below 20 years of age and about 1.5 million over 64 years of age. Assume that only 50% of these retirees are state supported.
so you have less than 50% of the population in employment, who are supporting 2 million kids, 0.75 million retirees and 1.1 million on benefits.
Roughly 1 person is supported by 1 person. Do you want me to talk about how productive that society is? :)
All this to be taken with a grain of piquant salt!!!
3 comments:
1. There was a storm recently in the press because the prime minister was bold enough to challenge the age-limit for retiring. I agree with him. Where and who came up with 64 years? If someone wants to continue working, why deny him/her the right?
Although in the current situation it appears that there is no other choice...
Some radical changes to the mind-set is called for. But above all, is for folks to stop living like "Ostriches" - sticking their heads in the ground pretending that the danger will go away.
2. Oh...Shonabhai! Why did you stop short of describing productivuty?? :)
You may enjoy reading this Shona bhai!
http://www.thelocal.se/27172/20100611/
/Kunal
lol, well, the question is rhetorical..1-2-1 support is obviously unproductive. Imagine a household with 1 person dependent upon 1 person working. If something happens to the one working person, then the dependent person is frankly screwed.
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