The public costs of retirement systems will rise markedly unless countries raise their age of eligibility for retirement program benefits or cut these benefits. Moreover, small tax increases or benefit cuts will not do the job - the implicit actuarial deficits of these programs are so large that halfway measures will not be adequate.
The United States is in relatively good shape by international standards. In contrast to other countries, the United States birth rate is not far below the rate that stabilizes population levels, and the tax rates necessary to finance our main retirement programs, Social Security and Medicare, are relatively low.