They say that between the years of 1946 & and 1964 some 17,000,000 (17 Million) babies were born in the UK in a period that is often known as the Baby Boom. Now that will surely mean that those born in 1946 have just about reached retirement age and as such over the coming 10 to 15 years will not all of these 17 Million adults be entering into retirement just as the coughers of the Treasury are at record lows and deficits are at record highs. These retiring adults will then i) no longer be contributing in Income Tax and National Insurance and ii) at just the same time as they will start to require State Pension and enter in to a period when they most need use of the National Health Service and iii) all of this at a time when life expectancy has exceeded all former estimates.
Meanwhile these Baby Boomers hold 80% of the UK’s Wealth and are in the highest brackets of purchases of luxury products such as high end cars, holidays and non essential purchases.
Now imagine if the final Baby Boomers were to reach retirement tomorrow. Unemployment is at a 17 year high and therefore Income Tax receipts are at an extreme low at the same time as higher numbers of people need state help in the aid of Unemployment Benefit. The youth of today are continuing to struggle to even get on the employment ladder as with so many out of work, most opportunities are going to older people with more experience. Now if things do not change, we speed forward 10 – 15 years, what will happen to those young people without any experience?
Society has changed so much. I wonder what percentage of the Baby Boomers actually went to University? Or what the average age of leaving school was? Compared with today when 80%+ of school leavers expect to go to University.
If 80% of the UKs Wealth was held by those Baby Boomers who did not go to University and we have all these University leavers unable to find any jobs, doesn’t it tell you something about how education is not preparing the young to be ready to find jobs when they are older. My parents often hark back to their days at school and the 11+ and was it really that bad if you failed the 11+ to not go to Grammar School but rather a school that would concentrate it’s efforts on giving you a trade or useful tools that can be used for those that are less academic and better suited to careers in Trades. Even when I was educated it felt at least that University was the reserve of those that had aspirations to be Lawyers, Doctors or Dentists.
So what happens if, as the Baby Boomers with their 80% of the UK’s Wealth hit retirement decide that they have had enough of the UK and decide to spend their final years somewhere nicer in the sunshine and emigrate. Much like there have been Brain Drains in the past there would be an immense cash drain on the UK’s economy. VAT receipts would drop rapidly, what would happen to the struggling stores on the High Street then?
Meanwhile they do say that there is, once more, another Baby Boom occurring right now which could, potentially, be the solution as there will be more tax revenues coming back in. At least in an ideal situation. Of course it seems there are not enough spaces in Schools or Prisons as it is today, let alone if we have yet another Baby Boom but it would seem that this has to be our string of hope. I do have to wonder though, where will everyone fit and what will another boom do to house prices that are already unaffordable? Is this, yet another, time bomb ticking?
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