Mgr. Lucie Vidovićová, Ph. D. Masarykova univerzita, Brno Výzkumný ústav práce a sociálních věcí 1

The concept of demographic panic / alarmism:  what is it? how does it show?  what is behind it?  how is it perceived by older people?  what are the outcomes?  what is it for?  …no good news at all? 2

 publicly articulated worries about the future development of a society based on its changing demographic structure.  stems from the notion that the nation's well- being depends directly on the population's age distribution.  underlying “shortage mentality” - the notion that any advantaging of one group is necessarily to the loss of another.  the rethorics“expensive“ – “global ” – “crisis ” Bytheway 1995, Mullan 2002, Walker

 “…at the time when the pension system is threatened to collapse, Czech Republic needs more people, who will earn money.” Czech Republic can be rescued only by migrants, Lidové noviny  “The greatest threat for the Czech Treasury is the current pension system. Its expenses keep increasing the budget deficit. Moreover, it can also endanger access to European funds. The pensions need reform, they “eat away” hundreds of billions from the state, claims the ministry, Lidové noviny

 ageism and social exclusion (“us” vs. “them”)  coincidence of risk society, individualism and decreasing hope in collective solutions (Mullan 2002)  anti-social (welfare) propaganda and shrinking welfare state  intentional overestimation of macroeconomic consequences of population ageing  rhetoric of “crisis” since the 1980´s (i.e.World Bank) (Walker 1990)  new! global economic crisis Ticking of the demographic time bomb … 5

Ranking by total GDP in

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 data collection technique: focus groups  seven groups : 63 participants = 51 women + 12 men age range 53 – 88 yrs (average age 70.4 yrs) all levels of education, higher education overrepresented 4 types of groups: “active – U3A“(4x); “carrers “(1x); “activists “(1x); “clients“ (1x)  “snow ball“ selection, no specific in/exclusion criteria  +10 hours recordings, 254 pages of transcriptions 8

 Internet  -and why do you call me, you can find it on the net - (with contempt). I came across this „you find it on the net“, I work with people with damaged eyesight and there came a blind lady with her mother who also had problems with her eyesight and the clerk told them anyway “why should I search for it, find it on the net”, she says “I’m blind” – (The clerk:) “that is your problem” (7:152).  media as a service  When you look at headlines (…) an elderly cannot distinguish them, when you listen, you hear sounds but you can’t clearly hear the expressions. And you don’t know whether it’s because you’re old or the recording is bad. And this is also disadvantaging, discrimination, because a lot of stuff, especially by young directors, is for the young, although it would also interest the elderly but it is made and I’m not sure if carelessly or indifferently, an elderly just abandons it after a while. (…) And the message is really badly presented. (1: ). 9

 I’d add one thing, reasoning behind the economic reform in this country is often characterized by the excuse that the young won’t earn enough to support the elderly, that we won’t make ends meet, even let’s say in healthcare, we’ll overspend. And also the constant rationalization of changes that the right wing I’d say liberals propose in confrontation with the left wing or other groups has a negative impact, the young say: “What shall we do with you, you’re no longer good for anything.” We really feel this way.(1:63) 10

 I’d add one thing, reasoning behind the economic reform in this country is often characterized by the excuse that the young won’t earn enough to support the elderly, that we won’t make ends meet, even let’s say in healthcare, we’ll overspend. And also the constant rationalization of changes that the right wing I’d say liberals propose in confrontation with the left wing or other groups has a negative impact, the young say: “What shall we do with you, you’re no longer good for anything.” We really feel this way.(1:63) selected, intentional discourse 11

 I’d add one thing, reasoning behind the economic reform in this country is often characterized by the excuse that the young won’t earn enough to support the elderly, that we won’t make ends meet, even let’s say in healthcare, we’ll overspend. And also the constant rationalization of changes that the right wing I’d say liberals propose in confrontation with the left wing or other groups has a negative impact, the young say: “What shall we do with you, you’re no longer good for anything.” We really feel this way.(1:63) typical abuse of demographic panic for cuts in social affairs budgets [Walker 1990] 12

 I’d add one thing, reasoning behind the economic reform in this country is often characterized by the excuse that the young won’t earn enough to support the elderly, that we won’t make ends meet, even let’s say in healthcare, we’ll overspend. And also the constant rationalization of changes that the right wing I’d say liberals propose in confrontation with the left wing or other groups has a negative impact, the young say: “What shall we do with you, you’re no longer good for anything.” We really feel this way.(1:63) arguments built on fear and shortage mentality 13

 I’d add one thing, reasoning behind the economic reform in this country is often characterized by the excuse that the young won’t earn enough to support the elderly, that we won’t make ends meet, even let’s say in healthcare, we’ll overspend. And also the constant rationalization of changes that the right wing I’d say liberals propose in confrontation with the left wing or other groups has a negative impact, the young say: “What shall we do with you, you’re no longer good for anything.” We really feel this way.(1:63) constructing seniors’ collective identity; attitudes of „threatened groups“; and turning them into an “ideal group to ditch” (5:72) 14

 is targeted and intentional  And this is supported, as I say it’s not just my opinion, if you open anything you’ll come across it. (1:55)  Massive, it’s a psychosis. It is a psychosis. (…) I simply don’t like it as a campaign, yeah. (6:399)  is more prevalent for older people than for other groups  I’d like to add what bothers me, what offends me. The constant repetition in the mass media, how much pensioners get from the budget, that they get an extra 300 crowns, -- agh, this offends us and on the other hand it teaches younger generations and the young that actually – what shall we do with the pensioners? They only take. They do not say how much others take from where – only how much the pensioners cost. (7:40)  …especially then for the “other ethnic group“  So there are such people among us, there are enough of them, but the other ethnic group – there are many more of them and when there is talk about how the expenditure is tight they don’t talk about them. It’s always only:”The pensioners eat it up.” And that is, of course, wrong. (5:62) 15

 I think that, actually, media and in general everyone, always talk about the pensioners, what a problem they are, how much they cost us etc., that we won’t have enough finances for this – this encourages the young who say: “Yes, it is because of them that we don’t have this and we should have more if it weren’t for the many pensioners.” (5:24)  (…) this is where the inter-generational war starts, basically it already started, hatred against pensioners is incited. (5:59)  For sure discrimination starts with that separation, e.g. every other day I hear in the radio or television or I read in the paper what problems there are because of the increasing number of pensioners and the decreasing funds and how this will get even worse in Well then what are the young supposed to make of it? I’ll give an example. We were travelling to town XY, where there is a comprehensive school so there were young and seniors on the bus (...) someone got on at every stop bus as soon as an elderly got on the young students said: “Look, another pension gets on.” Not a pensioner but a pension gets on! This is what the current party and government caused. Yes. = Interviewer: Why do you think they caused this? = Interviewee: Well because they constantly talk about problems with increasing numbers of seniors and how to finance their pensions. (6: ) 16

Generous benefits that elderly people receive decrease the country’s budget for young people. 16 %15 % Due to constantly increasing numbers of the elderly their political activities should be limited so that they do not influence society that much. 35 %43 % No one over the age of 60 should take up a political office. n.a.54 % Source: Ageismus 03/07 17

goodneitherbad Czech R Germany72272 Italy Poland62965 Slovenia IPPA II – Kontula, Miettinen

 panic is raising awareness  raising awareness is mainstreaming (UN 2005)  mainstreaming is essential for change (Madrid 2002, para 16)  only change may challenge the notion of panic from demography… 19

serious A model displays TI bra called 'Stop the birth rate decline', in Tokyo May 10, The bra features embroideries illustrating children supporting elderly women and was created to increase awareness of the issue of serious decline in Japan's population, the company said. REUTERS/Yuriko Nakao - Wed May 10,

„Povaha a prevence diskriminace seniorů v ČR“ Život 90, MU Brno supported by OSF Praha „Age, ageing and discrimination – new context for Czech Republic“ - supported by Science foundation of CR: No. 403/06/1647 IPPA Databases were supported by EU „DIALOG project“ For further disscusion: 21