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Simeon Mitropolitski is a Canadian analyst, of Bulgarian origin, and a former syndicated columnist with the Bulgarian News Agency (BTA). He is the author of several hundred articles dealing with hot political and economic topics, both national and international.

He was part of the first group of Bulgarian intellectuals and students that began the opposition movement that finally put an end to the communist regime in this country in 1989, and in 1996-1997 participated in international observation teams during the elections in several Balkan countries - Romania, Albania and Bulgaria.

In 2002 Simeon and his family moved from Bulgaria to Canada where they live now in Montreal, province of Quebec. Simeon is a Master of Political Science from McGill University and a B.A. of Political Science and History.

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Almost one fifth of the Canadian baby boomers say they'll never retire and roughly one third say they are unprepared financially for the retirement. In the most developed societies the issue of older generation welfare isn't just a matter of generosity or some form of social justice, it's also a matter of economic welfare for anyone, including those who are still on the waiting lists In a society based upon mass consumers' behavior, it's unthinkable not to care about any social group welfare. Any sudden change in the demand will soon reflect on the supply side of the balance. Can we afford one or many economic recessions just because we haven't seen the problem before it has become too late?

As a matter of fact, the main problem is that the problem itself seems right now not so important for most of us, except for those who have already been forced to deal with it. The average person lives at least 3 different economic lives:

1. Childhood, based on economic consumerism;
2. Adulthood, based on economic productivity (dependent on what we have accumulated as knowledge during our previous period);
3. "Golden Age" (dependent on what we have accumulated as financial resources during the previous period).

During the last decades, the "Golden Age" period has become longer. On the other hand, the number of persons in the first two generations segments has relatively decreased compared to the whole population. If we want to live longer as we live now in financial terms, we have to save more during the 2nd period. Or if we can't do this, the government has to transfer and ever-increasing share of its incomes to cover the gap. It seems that neither of these options is possible because of the statistical facts already stated.

At first it seems that the solution can be reached by increasing the number of immigrants. This may be true only if the new immigrants are freely admitted to the positions allowing them to pay more than average taxes and save more than average for their own retirement. In Canada unfortunately this isn't the case so instead of solving the problem, the new massive immigration may make it worse. If among the native Canadians the percentage of those who feel they'll never retire is one-fifth, among the immigrants it reaches 50%.

There is another solution that gains ground and this is to increase the retirement age from 65 to perhaps 67 1/2 or 70. In Ottawa the ever-growing lobby of near retirement persons is pressing the government to consider seriously this option. The future Prime Minister Paul Martin, who right now is 65, has allegedly promised to study the issue when he takes the power.

The baby boomer's generation is about the begin retiring at the end of this decade. In Canada there are 6 million "boomers" or roughly 20% or the total population. If significant part of them experience abrupt fall in their living standard, that will represent a major blow to the national economy. If this happens, we can expect an increased supply of real estate on the market, suffocating the new construction activity and thus suffocation the whole economic activity for unlimited time. Weaker economy means fewer jobs, less savings and darker perspectives for the next generations. So the question "Can the elder afford retirement?" which seems so far away from the today's youngsters, can be translated into much more prosaic "Can the whole society afford to see its elder generations impoverished?"

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