The aging population of the United States and European nations is the “true origin of the current economic crisis,” according to the president of the Vatican Bank.
“The ever-increasing percentage of people who retire from their productive phase becomes a fixed cost which is impossible to absorb and sustain by those who produce,” writes Ettore Gotti Tedeschi. “The costs of an aging population cannot be sustained by young people, who, in addition to being fewer, might also ask themselves why they should do so, especially if they are immigrants.”
“Faced with this reality, it is indispensable to have the courage to address the theme of births and aging of the population,” he continues, adding
To ignore it is dangerous and it has become unavoidable to define a strategy to concretely support families in their natural vocation to have children. Only in this way can real economic recovery be triggered. A two-income family today earns less than the same family thirty years ago earned with only one income. This is the consequence of the growth of taxes on the GDP, doubled in the same period, precisely as a means to absorb the consequences of aging due to the decrease in births.
“Those who govern ‘mature’ countries must invest in the family and in children in order to generate rapid economic growth, thanks to factors such as increased demand, savings and investment,” he concludes. “Older people would thus be more accepted and not just tolerated, as sometimes happens today. In the end, nature itself teaches us that if a man and a woman do not generate children it is difficult that someone takes care of them when they age. The State can try, but at a very high cost.”
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