Day 93: Grey Populations and Hopes for Peace in Old Age going Dark

While I was in high school I was being warned by my teachers about the problem of aging populations. In essence, in recent decades, the amount of children being born per family in developed countries has decreased. Slowly but surely, this means that the populations grow smaller. However, for the time being - it means something else as well...

The problem pertains to the shrinking labour force, and thus the shrinking tax base - the taxes from which are used to fund the pensions from the older generations.

With shrinking populations, the composition of the population changes as well - where the balnace between older and younger people is offset as there are more older than younger people after a while. And this smaller younger population is supposed to support all the pensioners in their old age.

Obviously, the people who designed this system didn't really consider this point. Currently, the compulsory amount of years of work in order to have a right to pension keeps on being increased and the amount one would receive as a 'reward' for all your years of work, keeps on getting smaller. Older people who were promised to be able to retire at 60 become disillusioned as they see the amount of years they'll require to continue working, to keep on increasing. Already at an old age, there is no more time to save any substantial funds to assist them take care of themselves where the pension-system fails.

The whole idea of having to work for most of your life before getting a real taste of life is absolutely ridiculous in itself. I remember being absolutely shocked as a child when I learned that I would have to work for my entire life, and once I was about 60 I would be allowed to start living my life without having to go to work every day. I wonder, if children in the womb would learn about this, if they wouldn't abort themselves right there and then - because how is that a life worth living?

I forgive myself for accepting and allowing myself to try to ignore the economic side of things as much as possible and live in some kind of ignorant and hopefull bliss-state-of-mind, thinking that I must just enjoy myself as much as I can and everything will be just fine - to not ask questions about where my food will come from once I retire, or when I'll be able to retire - because those questions are only relevant waaaay in the future.

I forgive myself for accepting and allowing myself to live in trust of the economic system, thinking and believing that some clever bunch of people have it all figured out and that I will simply be provided for and well taken care of once I retire.

I forgive myself for accepting and allowing myself to think it is normal that I have to work to make a living.

I forgive myself for accepting and allowing myself to think and believe that it is normal that I have to work for most of my life, and only once I'm about 60, I get to have real 'free time'.

I forgive myself for accepting and allowing myself to not realise that having to work for decades on end as soon as you're able to, in essence means that I'm born in debt and that I have to pay a debt to the system before I can start living my life.

I forgive myself for accepting and allowing myself to think and believe that it is probably necessary that people work until 60 in order for all the goods and services that are needed to support everyone to be produced - when actually, with the technology available today, we can reduce working time to an absolute minimum of 4 years of labour per person, after which it becomes a person's choice whether they work or not.

I forgive myself for accepting and allowing myself to trust an economic system that is completely volatile - where major rules and regulations continuously have to change in order to 'make things work' to some extent - and thus, a system where there is no certainty or security.

I forgive myself for not accepting and allowing myself to realise that having a sense of security in having certainty of exactly when I will retire, is something every person wants and should be able to have, instead of each one just being a subject of economic happenings that stand outside of each one's individual control.

I forgive myself for accepting and allowing myself to believe that the free market system is the only system that ensures the efficient use of resources - without asking myself how come that labour is being used so absolutely inefficiently, where people are made to work for their entire lives to provide for everyone - while so much labour is actually being wasted on absolutely useless products and services, let alone on competing firms who provide the exact same services and goods and who keep their engineering technology as secret as possible - instead of just sharing all the knowledge and gathering our strenghts to be able to bring about the most efficient work environment and production processes in all ways and in all areas.

I commit myself to educate people on how life is being disregarded as shown in the very fact that human beings are being made to work for most of their life without it being necessary.

I commit myself to educate people in realising that if each one just works for 4 years of their life while employing technology to its most full potential, sufficient labour would be available at all times to provide all necessary goods and services to the entire population.

I commit myself to manifesting an economic system of security and certainty - where one is absolutely certain of the living standard one will enjoy from birth till death.