Goins

By Ted Goins

The Carolinas and the entire nation are sitting on the ticking time bomb of a workforce shortage that is already causing deaths and severe economic damage. Health and human services providers who serve around the clock are among the hardest hit. Will our nation wake up before it’s too late?

Today, there are approximately nine prime-time workers (age 18–45) for every person over the age of 80. In just a few short years, in 2040, there will only be 4.6 prime-time workers for every person over 80. I will turn 80 in 2038! Who will care for me?! Who will care for you?! And the catastrophe gets even worse through 2060!

If you want to see our future, look at Japan. They are already there with an aging population and a shrinking workforce.

The United States has two choices: to start birthing drastically more babies (future workers) or welcome more legal immigrants (immediate workers). The United States needs a foreign guest worker program for health and human services workers today. Tomorrow, we need our nation’s political leaders to create an international pipeline of legal immigrants.

Every day, we dawdle as a nation, our most vulnerable citizens suffer and die, our economy suffers, our nation suffers. Again, will our nation wake up before it’s too late?

Ted W. Goins Jr., is president and chief executive officer of Lutheran Services Carolinas (LSC), a nonprofit direct care provider that serves over 2,500 seniors and over 7,500 children, families, international refugees and other legal immigrants.