U.N. Meeting to Address Aging World
By JEROME SOCOLOVSKY
Associated Press Writer
MADRID, Spain (AP) — The predictions are almost cataclysmic: In 50 years, if trends continue, the number of people older than 60 will triple. Those 2 billion seniors would outnumber the world's youths.
By 2150, one-third of the world's population would be older than 60.
But long before that, gains in longevity could bring a worldwide economic crisis, experts warn. With the population's proportion of taxpaying workers shrinking, national budgets could be overwhelmed in trying to provide retirement and health benefits for the elderly.
``By the mid-2020s, virtually the entire developed world will be one big Argentina unless some serious reforms are made,'' said Paul Hewitt of the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, referring to the economic woes the South American country has suffered in recent months.
So, on Monday, representatives from 160 countries and international organizations begin a five-day United Nations conference in Madrid to grapple with the challenges posed by the graying of humanity.
The United Nations says older populations will significantly change patterns of ``savings, investment and consumption, labor markets, pensions, taxation ... health care, family composition and living arrangements, housing and migration.''
In the developing world, the pace of aging is faster than in developed countries, giving the poorest societies less time to cope. The ramifications could be serious as the elderly become an additional burden to the traditional scourges of poverty and disease.
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