Why worry? As Dean Baker pointed out in Challenge, now that the CPI revision is rolling we'll all be fabulously rich in 30 years, and should have no trouble caring for the boomers. Eban On Wed, 4 Dec 1996, Doug Henwood wrote: > At 12:01 PM 12/4/96, Max B. Sawicky wrote: > > >yes and no. The change in the ratio of workers to retirees only > >matters in a pay-as-you-go framework. If current workers somehow > >saved enough in private plans it wouldn't matter how many younger > >workers there were. One consideration would be the effect on equity > >values as the baby boomers all cashed in their chips together; if > >this is what you were referring to it has some plausibility, though > >one could argue that in a world capital market it wouldn't matter. > >I'll leave that question to the mavens of finance. > > Saved? As Keynes said, we cannot as a community make financial provision > for the future. What would these "savings" mean, other than inflated equity > values, unless the rate of real investment were increased? And whatever > your position on the S<->I precedence issue, I don't see U.S. business as > particuarly finance-constrained - meaning a significant increase in I/Y > seems highly unlikely. Just what is the mechanism whereby higher S would > mean higher Y in 2020? > > Since the U.S. has one of the mildest aging problems of the OECD countries, > where will the outside money come from? Malaysia maybe? > > Countries with slow population growth tend to have higher productivity > growth than those with rapid population growth. But forecasts of social > security's bankruptcy rest on both slow productivity and slow LF growth. > > Not that I have anything against sex, immigration, or sex with immigrants. > > Doug > > -- > > Doug Henwood > Left Business Observer > 250 W 85 St > New York NY 10024-3217 > USA > +1-212-874-4020 voice > +1-212-874-3137 fax > email: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > web: <http://www.panix.com/~dhenwood/LBO_home.html> > > > _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Eban Goodstein email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Department of Economics phone: 503-768-7626 Lewis and Clark College fax: 503-768-7379 Portland, OR 97219
