June 01, 2012 | News

MPIDR-Director James W. Vaupel speaking at the Baltic Sea States Summit

James W. Vaupel was the only scientific expert to take part in a round table discussion on demographic change headed by Chancellor Angela Merkel. “The 21st century will be a century of the redistribution of work”, he said to the government heads of the 11 countries neighboring the Baltic Sea and the President of the European Commission President attending the meeting. The meeting took place in Stralsund on May 30 and 31, 2012 by invitation of Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Besides energy policy and economic cooperation, one of the meeting's topics was the impact of demographic change, introduced by a speech of James Vaupel. He said to the policy makers that in Germany, for example, an individual works only 12.5 hours a week; that is, when dividing the number of hours worked by the number of inhabitants. De facto, this work is only done by a small fraction of the population and, on top of that, within a very short period of time. Appealing to the policy makers, he stated: “We should give people greater flexibility in deciding when to retire and how many hours to work per week at various ages over the life course.”

James W. Vaupel's conclusion: “The 20th century was a century of the redistribution of income and wealth. The 21st century will be a century of the redistribution of work.”