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Japan ‘on verge of no longer functioning’ after birth rate plummets to record new low
(www.independent.co.uk)
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this post was submitted on 01 Mar 2025
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If population is decreasing because of decreased birthrate, then the population is aging. And all else equal, an aging population is less productive because fewer people are working.
And that's a problem, how, exactly?
It means things change, because that's what humans do. We adapt. There are still 750k children born in Japan in 2024, vs 1.6m that died.
To me, it sounds like the obvious solution is to make life better for the young. That doesn't have to come at the cost of the old, but that's what the wealthiest will choose.
Less productive means less things for you.
Suppose you ate 100 bananas this year. Suppose you were told that next year you are only allowed 90 bananas, and what's more you will never have 100 bananas a year again. Even worse, after next year you will never have 90 bananas again. And the same is true of everything else you enjoy.
Most people hope, at a minimum, that next year will be no worse than this year. They do not like knowing, for certain, that every year will be worse than the one before. Forever. But that's what happens when productivity inexorably declines.
In fact, in this situation the only way to make things better, for anyone, is at someone else's expense. There is no such thing as a win-win outcome. That makes for a very unpleasant society and it's easy to see why leaders want to avoid this.