Is somebody listening

to such sensible stuff anymore:

As the American population ages, the unpleasant question will have to be answered: what to do with the Baby Boomers as they age and can no longer care for themselves? The typical Baby Boomer can not afford a private nurse or comfortable retirement homes. Without immigration the market does not provide many affordable and dignified long-term care options. Restricting immigration will probably result in more illegal immigrants providing care. This leaves the migrant and the elderly person they care for vulnerable to abuse and exploitation. More legal immigration also increases the tax base which takes some of the edge off of the burden of entitlement spending on current earners. Increased immigration of workers of all skills levels will help allow retirees to age and die with dignity.

A fantastic piece

on how UPA has screwed up here by Niranjan Rajadhyaksha!

Do go read it.
some excerpts here

On the one hand, the ruling alliance has not aggressively pushed economic reforms but seems to have decided to ride the growth wave unleashed by a higher savings rate, demographic power and the benefits of the reforms done by the Narasimha Rao, United Front and Atal Bihari Vajpayee governments since 1991. The underlying assumption is that economic growth is on auto pilot, so there is no pressing need to go in for contentious policies such as cutting subsidies or changing labour laws. No reforms have been rolled back and economic policy is nowhere as interventionist as it was during the Indira Gandhi years, but it is quite clear that the UPA political leadership does not have a deep commitment to economic reforms despite having some outstanding economic liberals in government.

Yet, there has also been a firm belief within the Congress party that the benefits of growth have not been distributed equally, a fear that was articulated recently by Rahul Gandhi when he used the irresponsible rhetoric about the existence of two Indias. The second prong of the UPA strategy has been to provide voters with entitlements to employment, food and education in the name of inclusive growth—and win votes in the bargain.