The Care Economy
But nobody cares.
This might be the dilemma we face because of the ageing population that the intergenerational report (IGR) talks about.
In its fact sheet the IGR talks about how the ageing population will reinforce the trend towards a services-based economy, with the care and support sector and its workforce potentially doubling over the next 40 years.
Turning care into an industry is surely one of the more difficult things to achieve.
We are at a time when loneliness is becoming endemic in our society. A large part of this is felt among the aged.
The aged care sector is a necessary part of our community to relieve carers of close family from succumbing to the sheer weight of work that caring for someone who is frail, unwell, or disabled in some way imposes on them.
Remuneration for this task will struggle to keep pace with the underlying cost of supplying it. Especially when the natural tendency to want to care for a loved one must be replaced with the need to pay someone unrelated whose job it is to care for that person.
The solution to this conundrum in the care economy will emerge over time and how effective it is will reveal itself. Perhaps, one way of tilting it in favour of a dignified one is to make allowance for the nuclear family where the resources to care for an aged person are easier to bear.
There will be a cost to the economy of implementing these policies, but they could be mightily outweighed by improving the quality of life of a growing cohort of our population.
The care economy is a large and growing sector. If we are not careful, its dominance will impose imbalances that could curtail productivity in other areas.
We have recently conducted an interesting experiment in just that scenario. Working from home.
Elements in the economy are assiduously trying to bring this chapter to an end and we hear a lot about the difficulties of balancing work and home life responsibilities.
While this may take some adjusting to, I can think of the simple but very valuable benefits that come from being able to assist in looking after aged relatives simply by relieving them of the oppressive loneliness that can come about by institutionalising their care.
The same thinking can apply to childcare by adding flexibility to looking after young children at home while working.
The Department of the Treasury, which is the Government’s lead economic adviser has produced a fact sheet that summarizes it.
