Iceland’s EU ageing remedy
Europeans are growing older or, more precisely, we are not giving birth in sufficiently high numbers any longer. As a dramatic example of this, Germany’s population is projected to decrease from its current 82.5 million to around 75 million by the year 2050. What’s worse, half the population of the EU’s biggest country will be over 48 at that point and one third will be over 60, which does not bode well for an already struggling welfare system. OECD numbers tell a similar story, indicating that up to 45% of the old EU 15’s population will be over 65 by the year 2020. A tiny community in the North Atlantic seems to have it all figured out. While being at the top of the class in Europe as regards birth rate, Iceland is also on top regarding female labour force participation. At the same time, Iceland has the lowest unemployment rate for both men and women. How is that possible? Part of the explanation may be found in its generous and, perhaps more importantly, highly developed “gender-equality oriented” parental care system. In relative terms, Iceland spends a significantly higher share of its GDP on child and family benefits than the EU average. Nevertheless, at 19.5% of the GDP, overall spending in the social sector is far below the EU average.
posted by Unknown @ 9:50 AM
2 Comments:
Iceland also has plenty of those alternate elder care options aka ice floes as well.
Ik - not only do they take care of the children here, when immigrants from Muslim countries arrive they get housing (they are made a priority over New Zealanders), furniture and clothing and put on the dole. Each adult individual gets about $180 per week, plus allowances for each child. They get free dental care and medical care - including operations and a sex change if they want it and much, much more. After years statistics show that 80 per cent are still on the dole.
On the other hand, Hindu immigrants, white South Africans, etc open businesses or go into the professions asap. Much more is going wrong here.
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