Timebomb: When Ageing Explodes

Merritt argues that rapid population aging, if unaddressed, threatens prosperity and social cohesion. Although this book is focused on Europe and written primarily for a European audience, its arguments will resonate with readers in East Asia and the Americas, where analogous demographic trends are playing out. Aging pushes up the cost of health care, eldercare, and pensions, which governments pay for with taxes on the working-age population. But slow growth of that cohort limits the revenues available to cover these costs and to meet other pressing needs, such as education and training for new entrants into the labor force. Merritt offers recommendations for defusing the demographic time bomb: governments can increase fertility rates by expanding the availability of housing and childcare and providing a living wage or a universal basic income, and they can mitigate the costs of sustaining older populations by raising the retirement age and tailoring health services to the needs of the elderly. The author also points to immigration as a possible solution but worries that more open immigration policies could lead to political turmoil.