China's biggest unfunded man-date

WORLD: "Chinese seniors say they're under siege: Retirement spent in turmoil, fear," by Calum McLeod, USA Today, 31 March 2009.

Oh, China's got a man date coming all right.

Best bit in this story is old people in one complex battling against their ultimate landlord. Turns out it's the Chinese Air Force. Impressive.

Right now China has 160 million over 60, or about 12%. That cohort will be one-out-of-every-four Chinese come 2050.

Unlike the still-young and slowly aging U.S., China will get old before it gets rich, and it won't be pretty.

That's why the notion of China running the world on its own is a stretch. I don't see the mindset in the leadership before 2020 and then there'll be about a twenty-year window before the aging gets scary hard. Not much time to master running the world on your own.

Just like with Japan previously, all the vaunted talk about Asian culture respecting elders will go out the window as this trend grows. Already, respect for the elderly in China is dropping.

Comments

[Louis Heberlein]

Japan let (encouraged?) many elders settle in Japanese retirement communities in less expensive places in Asia. Families could afford to visit them at that time. Situation today? Model for China later?