"The state looks after the old and parents pay for kids" dempografix

Can I take a punt? You don't have kids and you don't have parents who are contemplating (or in) the retirement village/nursing home phase of their lives?

Your sentence gave me a wry grin because the government can't throw enough money at breeders while older people are forced to sell their homes to pay for care even though they have been screwed at every opportunity by business and government over their lifetimes. I think we can cut them some slack.

If you want I'll put a chip in your other shoulder so you don't appear so bent out of shape.

Sardine
I have kids and a parent on a pension.
The aged cost more than kids to our govt. Do some research.
1.2 million people will celebrate their 65th birthday by 2015.
The aging of our nation is unprecedented in our history.
Sounds like you are a boomer in denial.
Do you also believe in 'Skin'. Spending the kids inheritance? Seems 30% do.
I hope the the youth start a 'robbing the old of this wealth' club.

@dempografix: And do not believe the bs from the abs about most returning within one year.

That possibly didn't have the effect you wanted. I think most people here will view claims the Australian Bureau of Statistics produces badly distorted figures with deep suspicion. In fact most will decide the person spouting the claim is prone to bs.

Rstuart
The dept of immigration report that last year 30,000 of the 40,000 permanent departures for non Australian born residents, indicated they would be gone longer than 5 years. The abs are now adding the bs statement to the arrivals/departures as I lobby hard to expose the bs. I have a few intel contacts in the AG dept, who have raised the issue.
Peaking emigration is something they are trying hard to downplay.
Bernards numbers are just wrong and I am concerned that the denial of our looming fiscal challenges due to aging, will be ignored or denied for too long. The youth must be moved from exclusion to inclusion in the process of problem solving now.

@dempografix: The dept of immigration report that last year 30,000 of the 40,000 permanent departures for non Australian born residents, indicated they would be gone longer than 5 years. The abs are now adding the bs statement to the arrivals/departures as I lobby hard to expose the bs.

I've read the bit you quoted several times, and can't make head nor tail of what you are on about.

I wouldn't be too worried about it though. We may be loosing 40,000 people per year, but we are currently importing about 4 times that.

@dempografix: the denial of our looming fiscal challenges due to aging, will be ignored or denied for too long.

What damage does denying it do?

I can understand concern about rising population in the face of looming resource shortages. If the shortages happen we could overshoot the sustainable population with very unpleasant consequences, and the overshoot will literally take a century to undo. I can understand the concern about AGW, because developing the low carbon technology looks like will take decades, so to have a hope of addressing the theoretical concerns we have to start now. I can understand the concern about peak oil because even replacing the vehicle fleet with LPG will take at least a 1/2 decade, and developing non-fossil transportation will much longer than that, so it is helpful move public investment away from car infrastructure to things that don't have to depend on fossil fuels in the future.

All these things have one thing in common: a stitch in time saves nine. But how does that apply to ageing? Seriously, what would you have us do now that can't be done later when the requirements aren't based on speculation?

http://www.immi.gov.au/media/statistics/statistical-info/oad/perm-dep/permdep.htm

We are losing approx 95,000 this financial year! Not 40,000. That is only the non Australian born residents....

http://www.immi.gov.au/media/fact-sheets/05emigration.htm
Emigration by overseas-born
Of the 86 277 people who departed permanently in 2009–10, 50.7 per cent were born overseas, a slight increase on the 2008–09 proportion of 49.1 per cent.

What damage does denying it do? It is just kicking the can down the road to future taxpayers to cover the increasing health and pension costs of the boomers. 80% of boomers will require full or part pension!

What to do now?
1. Asset test the PPOR above $750k for pensions now.
2. Setup a better Centrelink Reverse mortgage scheme and move the wealth to the sate, not the banks.
3. Death Tax of 25% for assets above $750k
4. Create a financial incentive for pensioners to share with each other by making the first $750k of assets exempt, when sharing with another pensioner. 23% of our homes are lone occupants, rising to 33% as we age as a nation. A big problem indeed!