US presidential election ignoring large social realities

Washington

WE have all manner of policy proposals from the Democratic and Republican presidential candidates, but there's a sobering disconnect between what they're advocating and the large problems the country actually faces. The candidates seem caught in a time warp. Democrats plug new entitlements. Republicans embrace tax cuts. All this is familiar; it's also a flight from reality.

Whoever wins next November will inherit three major domestic problems that, though obvious, are downplayed because the politics are so unfavourable. (I'm excluding foreign policy and climate change.) Together, these three realities will go a long way towards defining 21st century America.

First, we are an ageing society. "The number of people aged 65 or older is expected to increase by 76 per cent between now and 2040," says the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). The 65-and-over share of the total population has already expanded. It's now 15 per cent, up from 11 per cent in 1980. By 2040, it's …