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■"Demographic Time Bomb Threatens Pensions in Europe: Saving more, paying higher taxes and working longer for retirement benefits," by Alan Cowell, New York Times, 26 November 2004, p. A3.
Hereís how one European expert describes it:
ìThey got used to having that very cushy social system, and now they are slowly coming to grips with the fact that the cushy system doesnít hold any more.
When itís pay-as-you-go you need a lot of payers if you want to ìgoî onto to retirement, and Europe simply isnít creating the babies to make that happen. The number of workers to retirees in Europe today is about 3 to 1, compared to 5 to 1 in the U.S. By mid-century, it will be 2 to 1, unless Europe lets in a lot more immigrants.
Old James J. Pinkerton might find that advice to be insane, but he isnít going to try and retire in Europe.
So either Europe lets in many more immigrants, or that ìdreamî that Jeremy Rifkin loves to talk about is going to disappear.
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