tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2948538160252327076.post3755291688546397182..comments2023-11-02T15:48:50.381+00:00Comments on UK Bubble UK Economy: Where Greece goes today, the rest of Europe will follow.Alice Cookhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05753570123987780947noreply@blogger.comBlogger11125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2948538160252327076.post-73284406564045571242012-02-21T16:54:26.682+00:002012-02-21T16:54:26.682+00:00"If Europe would open its doors to unrestrict..."If Europe would open its doors to unrestricted migration, would the flows materialize?"<br /><br />They would, but it's the wrong question.<br /><br />The correct question is "would the immigrant workers be as peaceful, as hardworking, as law-abiding, and as productive as the natives?"<br /><br />The answer to that is left as an exercise for the reader.Weekend Yachtsmanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04262853091154005651noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2948538160252327076.post-11563748588609350992012-02-21T14:06:33.038+00:002012-02-21T14:06:33.038+00:00Well, aitor2, people will probably flee to an inde...Well, aitor2, people will probably flee to an independent Scotland, serving the function that Wales and Brittany had last time. Remember that technological and social backwardness introduced by unwelcome immigration can be recovered from in only, oh, 1300 years or so.deariemenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2948538160252327076.post-48177195905788221352012-02-21T12:39:30.274+00:002012-02-21T12:39:30.274+00:00A very interesting article, Alice.
Please take, al...A very interesting article, Alice.<br />Please take, also in consideration, that the survival expectancy, currently women early 80s men late 70s for the UK is likely to fall due to the overall higher incidence of smokers, cancers and obesity. You can argue that there will be less pensions to pay....but more medical care to support? I feel deep down that Europe will cease to be a "white christian" continent by the force of the facts and there's nothing it can be done. Or can there?<br />Regardsaitor2noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2948538160252327076.post-82449655185777803762012-02-21T10:19:46.781+00:002012-02-21T10:19:46.781+00:00With the UK supporting 6 million of its citizens o...With the UK supporting 6 million of its citizens on assorted benefits why the need for more immigration yet ?<br /><br />In any case why should immigration involve anything other than qualified and skilled people ?Electro-Kevinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18073103431166273080noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2948538160252327076.post-58113301413616849122012-02-21T09:42:15.146+00:002012-02-21T09:42:15.146+00:00I see this everyday, men in the late 40s and 50s s...I see this everyday, men in the late 40s and 50s struggling with heavy building jobs where once they left the heavy lifting to the younger bucks, who are now too expensive to employ.<br /><br />The idea we will have an elderly efficient workforce is fancifulSeanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04362169593902131947noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2948538160252327076.post-87184364107500861392012-02-21T08:36:34.943+00:002012-02-21T08:36:34.943+00:00Aaaargh! Here we go again.
The elderly are not s...Aaaargh! Here we go again. <br /><br />The elderly are not so decrepit nowadays. My mother puts my wife to shame with her mountain goat fitness. Further, the middle class has grown massively in Europe since the war. Much wealth is concentrated in old hands. There is no reason to suppose the worst case outcome will be what we get.<br /><br />The fastest growing economy in the last decade has a forced demographic profile. Where are the triads smuggling Britons into China?<br /><br />Our biggest problem is that large family size is often congruent with bad parenting. in a technologically advanced society like ours, a big pool of labourers is not the commodity it once was.davidbnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2948538160252327076.post-62695248107023452992012-02-20T23:26:15.508+00:002012-02-20T23:26:15.508+00:00You need some mathematics to work out the solution...You need some mathematics to work out the solutions here. Frobenius matrix theory comes in handy, and an understanding of eigenvalues and eigenvectors. Demographers know it all as Leslie matrix theory. By tinkering with birth rates you can aim towards a stable population and age structure. The age pyramid will probably look more like Canary Wharf than the Shard.<br /><br />With a little more tweaking, you might be able to design a slowly falling population that avoided having too large an old age dependency ratio.<br /><br />The odd thing is, no-one seems to have panicked too much about some very high child dependency ratios: quite a few countries have recently had populations over half of whom were under 15.<br /><br />Perhaps the real fear stems from the undermining of family ties so fashionable in the UK. Honour thy father and thy mother? So last century, tied to old religious dogma! The thing is, these Old Testament values seem to have real Darwinian survival value, whatever your beliefs.<br /><br />Of course, death rates matter too. Perhaps we should encourage more smoking?Marknoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2948538160252327076.post-60792249194170043362012-02-20T21:21:24.233+00:002012-02-20T21:21:24.233+00:00The other problem with immigration is the business...The other problem with immigration is the business of who immigrates. If you let in a lot of people who rapidly have lots of children and then themselves live on the dole, or who do jobs but evade tax, you are worse off, not better off.deariemenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2948538160252327076.post-24223555437563041802012-02-20T19:12:24.451+00:002012-02-20T19:12:24.451+00:00Found this from a couple of years ago, which kind-...Found this from a couple of years ago, which kind-of agrees with Ralph:<br /><br />http://exaxe.com/victory-in-europe-brings-its-own-costs<br /><br />And what about the lib-dems raising the state pension so meaningfully recently and hoping to carry on doing the same? Where does that leave things going forward? Seems like workers today will need very sturdy legs for the broad shoulders they're going to need to support (deserving of course...) baby-boomers like me.Stevie b.https://www.blogger.com/profile/11427759744381570329noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2948538160252327076.post-25546140907049928142012-02-20T17:58:11.280+00:002012-02-20T17:58:11.280+00:00There is a major flaw in the idea that immigration...There is a major flaw in the idea that immigration is a cure for the ageing population problem: immigrants are human beings – they grow old and claim pensions themselves. Thus yet more immigrants are required, etc, etc. The exponential growth in the population that results if immigration is used to any significant extent to deal with ageing makes a nonsense of the whole idea.<br /><br />One study claims the result would be the population multiplying 20 to 30 fold in a century. <br /><br />See: DENTON F.T. & B.G.Spencer (2005) “Population aging and the macroeconomy….”, McMaster University, Canada. http://www.eldis.ids.ac.uk/go/topics/resource-guides/ageing-populations/ population-dynamics&id=21263&type=Document.<br /><br />The U.N. also published a paper on this topic and came out with a less dramatic population growth then the above. But the idea is still a nonsense.<br /><br />And what do the Chinese do about THEIR ageing population: take immigrants from Europe? I think not.Ralph Musgravehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09443857766263185665noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2948538160252327076.post-7223765582834381042012-02-20T17:44:16.628+00:002012-02-20T17:44:16.628+00:00Alice - nice, thought-provoking piece. To echo Dea...Alice - nice, thought-provoking piece. To echo Dearieme, where's the UK in this particular scheme of things? A bit better off perhaps?Stevie b.https://www.blogger.com/profile/11427759744381570329noreply@blogger.com