More Needs to Be Done to Deal With Aging Populations

I wonder what teenagers have to look forward too under this scenario?

clipped from blogs.wsj.com The graying of the world’s industrialized countries poses severe challenges to fiscal health, and more needs to be done to address the situation, according to a new Standard & Poor’s report. The study, titled “What a Change a Year Makes: Standard & Poor’s 2007 Global Graying Progress Report,” says that progress has been made in the last 12 months through structural fiscal consolidation, but cautions that the net debt burden could be overpowering by 2050. “Almost all [the nations] in the sample will face a very significant deterioration in public finances over the next half-century as a result of demographic change, unless a countervailing fiscal adjustment is put in place or social security and other age-related spending programs are reformed,” S&P credit analyst Moritz Kraemer said.