Misconceptions and misapprehensions about population ageing

Misperceptions about the elderly and about population ageing abound. This paper has attempted to deconstruct these misperceptions, which are important because they play a dominant role in current and future-oriented welfare reform. To varying degrees, all western countries are retrenching in the expectation of unsustainable costs caused by the needs of an older population. That this expectation is highly unlikely is rarely considered, perhaps because it meshes so well with neo-liberal interests. Sometimes, even evidence that population ageing is not particularly influential for future public costs gets lost in the rhetoric of demographic alarmism. For example, a recent Conference Board of Canada publication estimates that public heath care costs will increase by 5.2% per year over the period from 2000 to 2020, of which 0.9% will be due to population ageing; this same publication speaks of 'a growing and ageing population washing onto the shores of the health care system'.31 The discourse of apocalyptic demography seems to have such sway that it overrides reason at times. People seeking a future that includes a well-functioning social safety net, beware.