What was the difference in birth rates between 50s-80s and today? That's the more important metric in this case.
Re:The Old Are Eating the Young
by crdoconnor on Wednesday June 14, 2017 @02:58PM
(#14555117)
The dependency ratio went up from 15% in 1960 to 22% today.
The GDP per capita, by contrast, has increased 300% in 2005 adjusted dollars.
This is the metric that answers the question "why are pensions deemed unaffordable?", not birth/aging/death rates:
http://retired.talkingpointsmemo.com/images/productivity.png
The middle and working classes are much less powerful political bloc if they are fighting each another (young/old). Hence the steady flow of articles like this one pitting "boomers" against "millenials" and vice versa.
The provision of decent pensions, free education and social welfare was affordable in the 50s-80s when the country was much poorer and the idea that it has become less affordable because we live slightly longer after many decades of massive economic growth is, to put it bluntly, economically illiterate. The money is there.