Balance between carrot and stick

The Observer newspaper had a three page feature about “Ageing” with a really original title “Living with the population timebomb – I joke.

After the page of stats and graphs we had the personal perspective on the “problem” titled “one big happy family – but few luxuries”. In the middle of this page was a large quote from gran “I try not to turn to my family. But I don’t want to go into a home, I want to stay right here. The article starts with a couple of well worn sound bite quotes:
- 100 years ago, there were five people working for every retired person
- Soon for every pensioner, there will be just one worker.
- We have not woken up to this social revolution as we grow older and healthier

As far this article is concerned the aging population is a Grade A problem. Us, by inference the young are going to have a pile of problems caused by them (the old) that are living longer.

I guess if you take the view that any publicity is good publicity (which of course it isn’t) then the more visibility of the aging population we get the better – even if it most of it is a “stick”. How about some of the “carrots”:
- Older people commit far less crime
- You can cut down on large parts of the health service that are only used by the young (maternity – drug treatment.)
- You can reduce the amount spent on schooling

I would have expected a bit more balance from the Observer – still that's journalists for you.