The proportion of children in the population fell to an all-time low of 13.5 percent. That number has been falling for 34 straight years and is the lowest among 31 major countries, according to the report. In the United States, children account for about 20 percent of the population.
Japan also has a surfeit of the elderly. About 22 percent of the population is 65 or older, the highest proportion in the world. And that number is on the rise. By 2020, the elderly will outnumber children by nearly 3 to 1, the government report predicted. By 2040, they will outnumber them by nearly 4 to 1.
The economic and social consequences of these trends are difficult to overstate.
Japan, now the world's second-largest economy, will lose 70 percent of its workforce by 2050 and economic growth will slow to zero, according to a report this year by the nonprofit Japan Center for Economic Research.
Um... Immigration? Work visas? Redirecting governmental spending expenses normally allocated to children (such as education) towards those centered on the elderly?
With this happening in Japan, Germany, and potentially in all Western countries (save the U.S.) with restrictive immigration laws, how about NOT structuring our economies as pyramid schemes?
Technorati Tag: childfree
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