Eduardo Enrique Vargas Calero

November 20th, 2023

Professor Eliud Briones

Integrated English VI

Not having kids: A future disgrace for the future elderly?

Did you know that the decreasing fertility rate in Europe (1.8 children per
woman) can affect the future of the current working force? As it is well-known, the
pension system relies on young people to be sustained. This problem is important
because it can affect European people to be forced to retire at the age of 70. According
to the Committee for the Abolition of Illegitimate Debt, the Macron Government in
France is raising the pension age to 62 years to 64. According to the same source, the
pension system in Europe has that problem because less people are having children. The
demographic trends, particularly in these European countries, mean more people are
reaching retirement age and fewer people are at working age. The main cause of this
problem is regarded to the capitalist system. Since more people are getting older, the
current insured need to pay more taxes to sustain the pensions. The consequence of not
solving this problem will be, as mentioned before, the raising of the retiring age. The
best way to solve this huge problem is by re-designing the pension system so it does not
rely on young people to continue functioning.

The decreasing number of younger workers who contribute to the pension

system threatens its long-term sustainability. This decreasing natality harms the current
insured. Why? Because they are the ones who pay the pensions of the current
pensioners, but since there has been a decrease on natality, there will be a decrease on
future workers. So, who will pay the nowadays working force their future pensions?

For that specific problem, there is a solution. Europeans need to re-design the
pension so it does not rely on young people to continue functioning. This re-design will
help young people not to be scared of having to retire at the age of 65 or even 70. The
mentioned re-design will consist on creating a fund for paying the nowadays pensions,
sponsored by the total budget of each of these European Countries, making it auto-
sustainable. One of the advantages of the re-designing the pension system is that
everyone will be treated fairly when it comes to pensions. Everyone will have the same
age of retiring, without any mental or financial reservations. Another advantage is that it
will become much clearer for the institutes that take care of that money. One objection
that it may have is its implementation. To enforce this plan, we would need a European
Union referendum on which people decide if they want to take it or not. According to
Cambridge Dictionary, a referendum is ‘a vote in which all the people in a country or an
area are asked to give their opinion about or decide an important political or social
question’. When talking about the celebration of a referendum, a strong issue needs to
be considered. The strength of an issue is by the level of importance it will have to
union. So, European people need to make campaigns and also manifestations to tell the
government they want to have a re-design. It can also be stated as a national
referendum, but it will not have much impact that the European one would have.

In conclusion, the most viable option to solve the sustainability of the pension
system is the re-designment of it. It is important that the European society addresses this
problem because it will be unfair that the nowadays workforce has to retire until they
are 65 or even 70 in some countries. European people should help themselves by
approving the referendum for the re-designment of the pension system if they want to
live a happy and calmed elderhood.