The "Demographic Timebomb"

[greenlake]

Drink more tea

Excellent advice....

[original PM]

Exactly. Coercing the young and gullible into taking on excessive debt to fund worthless "Degrees" is criminal.

The range of meaningless and worthless Degree Courses is staggering.

New Liebour were mainly responsible for peddling this ridiculous concept, as indeed they were for all manner of crazy half-baked schemes.

Hanging is too good for them!!

Yes but once they are in debt they must work for the next 50 years to pay it off thus we get a good supply of indentured workers.

Like in America - want a job you must have a degree - want a degree you will get into debt unless your parents are rich.

Want to put your kids through college and not leave them in debt - better hope you are rich.

There is a rather vicious circle here which is not great....

[BrilloPad]

Sometimes it is hard to know what to believe about anything when you get so many "facts" from both sides.

Luckily you can always rely on CUK for the truth.

Anyway, Japan will have to solve the issue first. WE will borrow their solution.

[vetran]

Luckily you can always rely on CUK for the truth.

Anyway, Japan will have to solve the issue first. WE will borrow their solution.

what dress up as little School Girls?

[PurpleGorilla]

Yes but once they are in debt they must work for the next 50 years to pay it off thus we get a good supply of indentured workers.

Like in America - want a job you must have a degree - want a degree you will get into debt unless your parents are rich.

Want to put your kids through college and not leave them in debt - better hope you are rich.

There is a rather vicious circle here which is not great....

[LondonManc]

Yes but once they are in debt they must work for the next 50 years to pay it off thus we get a good supply of indentured workers.

Like in America - want a job you must have a degree - want a degree you will get into debt unless your parents are rich.

Want to put your kids through college and not leave them in debt - better hope you are rich.

There is a rather vicious circle here which is not great....

Not the case any more. There are coding apprenticeships starting up; some firms are recognising that an aptitude for coding is more valuable than a degree. Add into that the whole fiasco of degrees being dumbed down (standards of degrees have to drop to fit in with the standards of students admitted dropping) and degrees are getting more and more worthless, while costing more. Not sure where the tipping point will come but at some point there will be a backlash.

[sasguru]

Not the case any more. There are coding apprenticeships starting up; some firms are recognising that an aptitude for coding is more valuable than a degree. Add into that the whole fiasco of degrees being dumbed down (standards of degrees have to drop to fit in with the standards of students admitted dropping) and degrees are getting more and more worthless, while costing more. Not sure where the tipping point will come but at some point there will be a backlash.

The flip side of that is that rigorous degrees from good institutions (minimum Russell Group) now command a premium in the marketplace.
As I've said before its becoming a "winner takes all" scenario for the cognitively gifted.

[LondonManc]

The flip side of that is that rigorous degrees from good institutions (minimum Russell Group) now command a premium in the marketplace.
As I've said before its becoming a "winner takes all" scenario for the cognitively gifted.

If only that were true. The country's sad obsession with celebrity status has seen a massive hole left in the numbers for science degrees. University pass rates need to be maintained so it's now far easier to get a 2:1 BSc in Physics from a red brick than it was 20 years ago. That's not me saying so, that's a physicist friend with patents granted who is bemoaning the lack of high calibre physics graduates available.

[xoggoth]

Going back to the old farts issue, it is hard to know what to believe, as I said. Almost every day in the news there is something about lack of care for elderly/bed blocking.

The problem with that is that "boomers", i.e. those born in the birth boom after the war, are still in their late 60s/very early 70s and mostly pretty fit. It is the really elderly, those approaching, or in, their 80s or 90s that one sees in all these news clips. If there really is a problem with those born when population increase was quite low, what will it be like when the real boomers get that old?

Personally, I am more inclined to believe the Demographic Time bomb it is all bollux as that 2nd article says. The government is finding an excuse for all the funding cuts/doctor shortages (thanks in part to Labour's crazy pay boosts) at a time of expanding population generally. When I went to A&E with my bro in law last year, he was one of the very few old farts there, the place was mostly full of youngish sorts with kids.

[xoggoth]

Hmmm. Dunno about that. According to this

The greatest number of admissions by age band was for patients aged 65 to 69 (1.3 million). This age band also saw the greatest increase in the number of admissions, up 5.5 per cent (66,000) from 1.2 million in 2012-13.

Hang on!!! It says here:

Emergency admissions. The increase in the rate for those aged 65 to 84 was lower than for younger adults.
Average length of stay for older people fell by 25%, equivalent to 4 fewer days per hospital spell.
The number of emergency bed days among older people fell by 9%, as the decline in average length of stay outweighed the increase in admissions, and the rate of emergency bed day use fell by 25%.

In other words (I think) while number of admissions has increased, the time they spend in hospital has dropped. What we really need is admissions x time = total time in hospital. That what costs are related to. That last quoted sentence suggests a fall.