What happens when the baby boomers die?

[LargeSquareRock]

Sorry about the title, but that’s literally it. I’ve wondered this since I was a child.

Obviously we are about to enter a 20 year spike when a smaller number of tax payers support a higher number of elderly people in healthcare and elder care.

What happens in 20 years when the spike is over? Do we have empty care homes, plentiful housing and easily available health care?

I really have no evil agenda asking this- demographics has always fascinated me.

This x1000

@midgetastic @quantumbutterfly What are the many different ways?

Genuinely interested.

I can think only of two : human immigrants, and robots.

No. You’ll have lots of old people living for a lot longer than they would naturally, due to ‘advances’ in medicine. They’ll be kept alive but quality of life will be low. For many people. The younger ones will have to pay more and more taxes for health care and care in general. Any empty housing will be used by younger generations of the same family, or if not it will be taken by the gvt and used as council (‘social’) housing. Any family wealth will be passed to the next generation of family, keeping it in the family. Starmer will try to extricate this family money to pay the trade unions and civil service more money. However most wealthy people will have worked their way round this government re taxation robbery before they die.

I’m not a boomer. But don’t worry, people that are nasty to you are simply jealous of the life they think you have. That’s life, as they say! Enjoy!

And I'll never inherit from my boomer parents.
Massive assumptions are how things like this are worked out.

They tell you its forecast, but it's really just great big assumptions.

Are you equating immigrants with robots?

Well, exactly
Did you image all younger people were going to be preserved in amber, op?

Absolutely not!

I’m very, very, pro immigration!

But tech advances including robots are also going to fill population gaps - eg manual labour.

Problem with "empty" housing is that it's in the wrong place. Hence why there are entire blocks of derelict/crumbling homes in some areas of Liverpool and Newcastle etc., and similar in lots of run down ex seaside resorts.

As seen with seaside resorts, the govt/council/agencies "bus" people into them but they have no support network, and extra resources aren't provided for council services, health service, policing, etc., so it just increases crime and social deprivation problems in those areas.

The real answer is to provide quality jobs in the areas where there is currently little or none, hence the reason why there are empty homes in the first place. Then people will "want" to move there, i.e. the "right" kind of people, the ones who want to work, doing highly skilled work, paying taxes, and generally contributing to society.

Concentrating "problem" people in such areas is never going to work, and I don't mean that negatively, I mean all different kinds of people, a proper mix, rather than a concentration of certain demographics.

Which work will be filled by immigration?

We pay tax, extortionate rent, bills, etc, at the same rate as everyone else. Many of us still work just the same as everyone else. And when it all gets too much for our ageing bodies, we will die just the same as those before us, and so the cycle will continue long after we are all gone.

Any pensioners (‘boomers’ 🙄) on here, it might be worth checking if you’re eligible for pension credit. Apparently hundreds of thousands are, but aren’t claiming the benefit. It would help with the winter fuel allowance for pensioners being removed.

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/savings/pension-credit/

I said earlier that categorisation groups of individuals into groups that span 20 years or more is very hit and miss in terms of making generalisations. There is much more overlap and less distinction as each generation suceeds another. Particularly as social conventions have changed from women marrying and having children at a younger age to now having careers and perhaps children in their late 30's. There would be more Boomers with Gen X kids that Gen Xer's with Millenial kids and so on.

And they do nothing but moan and complain about how poor they are, how unfair everything is to them.

that's an overly simplistic way of looking at it though.
Someone in good health earning £35k and with no kids is going to be putting far more 'in' and taking far less 'out' than someone earning £45k, but with a chronic illness and 3 kids, for example.

(in purely economic terms that is. You could argue that by having 3 kids who would hopefully grow up to become tax payers the second person is contributing to the country in a different way).

Yes, the next generation will need support and no, presently there’s no cut off for support. The people who hate baby boomers think that they’re the only generation who claimed state pension and used the NHS. Eating and exercise habits were different for baby boomers, and the level of support with maternity, sickness and disability benefits were far less than they are now. Baby boomers also paved the way for maternity/parental leave and benefits and a lot more. But hey, why take account of all that when it’s easier to blame them for all the ills of society now.

The only reason immigration is filling UK jobs is that since the Thatcher era, training facilities have been shut down and apprenticeships were almost non existent because the government of the day was all in favour of the service industry instead of manufacturing.

It is likely, barring shocking bad luck and unforecast political changes. that our DC will inherit a decent amount. We shall do our damnedest to make sure that as little as possible is taken by any government. And once they get going, they will pay income tax and everything else the government expects.

As for us, the idea of buying a property under a golden visa programme somewhere where the weather is better has significant appeal. Not saying we shall, but it looks an increasingly attractive option.

42% of baby boomer women worked full time, compared with 30% of those that came before. There were various reasons for this, including the fact that the child care facilities available today, plus the government subsidies available to pay for them weren’t available at the time. It was family or nothing. Not remotely the same thing as is available today, so the comparison is skewed. A lot.

Jenasaurus · Today 15:06
Everyone in my family seems to have been lucky enough to retire early, with the exception of my grandpa who was born in 1889 and worked until he was 75 as a painter and decorator, (he lived until nearly 1989 but missed his 100th birthday by 2 months!) I will be like him and work for many more years than the pension age of 67 (health permitting as sadly there are 3 generations of Alzheimer in my family)

interesting that the majority of your family retire early, and the prevalence of Alzeimers

After watching exh and older friends retire and the affect it has on them I won’t be retiring ever

I think a link between early retirement and stopping all work and brain issues could well be discovered

It frightens me when I speak with people who were friends and I have had conversations with about all sorts of subjects. How different they are after just a year of retirement.

When Rachel Reeves announced the means testing of WFP she was fully aware of the fact that many benefits are under claimed, including pension credit. If she wasn’t aware that if the number of pensioners eligible for PC actually claimed it, then it would wipe out any savings from means testing the WFP, I would question her abilities as chancellor.

Would you expect the tax payers of this country to fund your health care in your old age having never paid tax there or would you pay privately/come back and use the NHS?

My mum worked all her life and ran two businesses until the age of 78. At 87 she was diagnosed with vascular dementia. The stress of coping with work to an advanced age can be just as detrimental.

I think a link between early retirement and stopping all work and brain issues could well be discovered
@Jenasaurus
I dont disagree, BUT does early retirement make dementia more likely, or is it that people who go on to develop the condition have cognitive (or other) changes earlier on in the process which make them more likely to retire early?

Of course they wouldn’t pay privately. They would expect the NHS to foot the bill. Spend your life in a nice hot country and when health problems pop up go back to the grey and rainy UK for the social security.