John MacDonald: I'm paying attention to BusinessNZ, I hope you are too - Canterbury Mornings with John MacDonald

I hope people are sitting-up and paying attention to what BusinessNZ is saying today. 

Especially the people who have their heads in the sand about our ability as a country to keep paying for things like healthcare and pensions. 

Because, as BusinessNZ puts it, we don’t have enough people to keep on doing that and we need a lot more people. 

As one headline today says, New Zealand needs 10 million people to stay afloat. 

BusinessNZ says we need twice as many people just to keep the lights on. For several reasons. 

For starters, in 20 years’ time we’ll have a labour shortage of 250,000 people. And unless we bring a truckload more people into the country, we won’t have enough workers to do the work. But also, we won’t have enough workers paying tax to pay for the likes of healthcare and the pension. 

That’s why I hope people are paying attention. Because, if we think we can keep on keeping on, providing the same services and doing things like dishing out the pension to anyone and everyone just because they turn 65, then we have to either stop doing that or somehow find a way to keep doing it. 

If BusinessNZ was a political party, it wouldn’t last five minutes, because the stuff it’s saying today is the stuff that doesn’t win elections. But it’s the stuff we have to listen to and accept. 

Example: raising the retirement age. If we are going to be five million people short of being financially viable as a country, we’re all going to have to keep on working longer. Most politicians are too scared to say that, but it’s true.

Or if we still want to retire at 65, we’re going to have to pay for it ourselves. Again, most politicians are too scared to say that, but it’s true. 

Now I’m not talking about this happening next week or next year. I’m saying that it’s inevitable that, at some point, we are going to have to accept that everyone retiring at 65 and everyone getting the state-funded pension is a thing of the past. Because we can’t afford it. 

Which is why BusinessNZ is also saying today that we’re going to have to start putting more into our KiwiSaver. 

That’s another no-brainer. Because, if we’re in a position where we need to double the population just to keep the place running, then we need to change how we do things. 

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