Demographic Denial – Automation, Ecological Catastrophe, Aging and a Falling Fertility Rate
DEMOGRAPHIC DENIAL – Automation, Ecological Catastrophe, Aging, and a Falling Fertility Rate
1.) The specter of mass unemployment driven by automation and of environmental catastrophe driven by overpopulation have grabbed many headlines of late. The threat of aging and a falling fertility rate less so. This may be a serious mistake. So argues the author below in an article from the Boston Globe.
2.) Current estimates of the unfunded liabilities of the US government may be hugely underestimated based on outdated assumptions with respect to both longevity and declining fertility.
3.) Women in the US are now having fewer babies than they want (1.77 versus 2.77).
How has this happened? What is to be done? A challenge for policy makers and individuals.
4.) Standard explanations of slowing economic growth from the right and left tend to ignore the impact of demographics.
5.) Is Japan our future? Japan’s population has been declining since 2011.
6.) For a long term global historical perspective on demography see the riveting Rosling
videos below – one uses fancy digital graphics, the other primitive analogue technology
from Ikea. The paradoxical key to containing global population growth is raising the child survival rate in poor countries to 90% which is done by raising the standard of living
(and the education for women).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jbkSRLYSojo