THe Last Foot

He went through the different BC communities the trend being older people moving away from the city centers into the outer rural areas. Negatives to attract young families are; raising the cost of housing for families and not providing jobs within the community all help in creating smaller child base for the schools to draw from. In rural areas it will create a smaller tax base and more demand on rural healthcare. The question he posed was; “why are they building hospital and services in city centers and not more out in the urban areas?” Looking at the mega trends most of the retired people are moving away from the dense centers and living in more rural like settings. The care centers should be built in these areas to service these people rather than have them driving in droves to city centers.
The solution of bringing in more immigrants in Mr. Foots estimation is not sustainable. There are about ¼ million immigrants to come in to Canada and at that rate the amount of foreign workers to fill in all the jobs needed would take 40 years! The USA has many more young people than Canada and they will be a stronger economy because of it (eventually). These younger people are the Hispanics so learn Spanish, if you are planning to work with the Americans in the future. California has 38 million people Canada has 33 million. Europe has the same older people bulge in their demographics and especially Germany where there are more death than births. The future suggests that European power will wane. Russia's weakening power, (whose youth population has also plummeted) along with Japan's diminishing strength. Turkey, India, Indonesia, Vietnam, Pakistan and Afghanistan (with one of the highest birth rates 6 per family) have the potential to become powerhouses. These large young populations in economic strained areas will likely prove the adage “youth vote on the streets and the older people vote in the ballot box”. Surprisingly he suggests that China, will run out of workers because of the; one child per family policy and it will negatively affect China economy as it does ours.
People are going to live longer and our pension system is not ready for that. Grandma will outlive grandpa. Grandpas that do last longer will have a larger harem to draw from, he wasn’t sure if this was a good thing or not. The boomers are going to be healthier and wand to work but not steady shorter days and hours. You will see gardening, pet care, walking and bird watching up in use as this older group grows in numbers. More driving and less bicycle & transit use, it seems that the 60-80 year olds, partially because of ailments of sights, joints and weakness would avoid using buses. The need for doctor’s increases slowly through our 60s, 70s and 80s, but our use of hospitals takes off in our 60s and rises dramatically to the late 80s. In our 90s it reaches 12 times the lifetime average because of broken hips, injuries from falls, and pneumonia. It was noted as well crime has gone down as well; it is not just because the police are doing a great job but it is harder for the older folks to move and commit crimes. Charitable causes will receive more money and less volunteer time; the elderly value their time and will not give it up freely. Casinos will be growing as that is also an attraction for an older set. The use of wine will go down and whiskey will be the favored drink for older population.
He left us with some quotes that maybe useful for all of us who are age gracefully or otherwise. What businesses are finding (and adjusting their selling techniques to) is that: “there is a gap of 12 years between, of what you think you are and what you are”. Always remember you are unique; like everyone else!