Given current realities, it’s hard to turn away from the immediate economic and political situation, but sometimes an overflow of ignorance demands it. The claim that a country is facing a crisis due to a falling birthrate should be an immediate signal that you are not hearing from a serious person.

Those of us who learned arithmetic in grade school can quickly do the calculationsshowing that the impact of even modest rates of productivity growth swamp the impact of a declining ratio of workers to retirees. The demographic story also becomes more pathetic to arithmetic fans when we remember that workers also have to support children. Furthermore, people can and will choose to work later in life as health improves, fewer jobs require major physical demands, and we have vastly increased opportunities for remote work. (I’m not advocating raising retirement ages, I’m saying this will be a choice.)

Anyhow, our elites have never let reality interfere with the story........

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