Glass half . . .
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A set of numbers can be at once banal and frightening. Take the numbers released by Interior Health (IH) recently predicting populations of regions of the province for the next five to 15 years.
According to IH, the number of people 65 years and older will increase by almost 70 per cent by the year 2025. The numbers for those younger than 50 today are far different.
In fact, those who are between 20 and 44-years-old in the year 2025 will grow by only three per cent by that time and the number of 45 to 64-year-olds will actually shrink by eight per cent. It doesn’t take a paranoid mathematician to find something to worry about in those numbers. In a valley that already has a shortage of affordable housing, an increased number of fixed incomes will only increase demand.
As the average age of our area increases more, shifts in costs to health care and a greater tapping of pension funds will apply pressure to systems already buckling from the weight of their present responsibilities. The young will find it harder to support themselves and, as a result, will decide to have fewer children and the cycle will spiral.
But the numbers themselves leave a lot out.
A look at Einstein’s special relativity theory is anywhere from cold and unapproachable to downright boggling if only considered as a sequence of numbers. But a more artful look at it exposes the beauty of existence as matter is broken down to its basic element of energy, and we are all nothing more than waves of probability, and human experience becomes a gift of chance.
Population numbers, in the same way, must also be seen in more basic terms to appreciate their beauty. Instead of the almost 85,000 people expected to live in the Kootenays in 2025, consider an individual who is alive right now. An individual like Andy Stuart-Hill who, in his eighth decade on this planet is getting set to embark on yet another adventure and visit two entirely new countries.
Suddenly that younger generation, that was once thought of as being burdened by an aging population, can now see themselves as being surrounded by a sea of experience. Such experience could lead to advantages in world markets that would lead to even greater prosperity than ever dreamt of, should it be utilized in the right way.
The only thing that will keep those youngsters from making the transformation from the wallet-half-empty situation to the potential-wallet-entirely-full one will be a close-minded acceptance of the numbers of the numbers. Only when those figures can bee seen as a possible boon can the true value of individuals be focused on and benefited from and the real value of the numbers become clear.
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