Labor unions, opposed to government plans to raise the legal age of retirement, want a show of strength. President Emmanuel Macron is hoping to forge ahead despite the wave of discontent.
This isn’t a problem that can be solved under capitalism
It’s a fundamental problem. Capitalism can make it worse by having a poor distribution of resources, sure. But if fewer and fewer workers are supporting more and more retirees, that’s eventually going to strain the workers. Even your beloved China is set to struggle.
expectancy isn’t going up anywhere as fast as it used to either
The issue isn’t just that life expectancy is going up (though it still continues to go up). It’s that a growing retired population is a lagging effect. We haven’t caught up with the life expectancy increases from the 1950’s.
This would only be a problem if there was a global shortage of workers which there isn’t. For example, US holds thousands of able workers in concentration camps on its border right now. There are plenty of people who’d love to move to western countries to work right now. There isn’t really any actual lack of workers. And of course, there is no end of western articles predicting struggles in China. Yet, after many decades not a single one of these predictions has come true so far. I’m sure this will be the first though.
There is an upcoming worker shortage. A few places are already running into issues due to any number of reasons. Maybe life expectancy went up faster than the global average. Violence, poverty, or opportunity could cause young people to move elsewhere when possible. The rich world in general is currently is in the situation of having a low birth rate filled in by migration. The fools in the rich world who don’t appreciate what immigrants bring to the table are battling to deny themselves a rich resource.
But this won’t stay a thing forever. As the Global South, developing countries, whatever you want to call them start to catch up, two things will happen. One is they too will experience declining birth rates, as has consistently been the case as living standards increase. The other is that net migration will start to zero out. There won’t be camps full of people begging to be let in. It will be more like Russia is right now, with an aging population and few young people. I’m not picking on Russia, they just have the demographics of a shrinking young population and and a growing old population.
The solution to aging global population is to allocate labour and resources in a way that reduces the need for necessary labour. Automation and efficiency have been on the rise since the industrial revolution, and yet none of that has translated into reduction of the amount of work people are expected to do. The idea that people living longer is the problem here is the height of absurdity. The problem is with the fact that labour and resources aren’t allocated in a sane way.
It’s a fundamental problem. Capitalism can make it worse by having a poor distribution of resources, sure. But if fewer and fewer workers are supporting more and more retirees, that’s eventually going to strain the workers. Even your beloved China is set to struggle.
The issue isn’t just that life expectancy is going up (though it still continues to go up). It’s that a growing retired population is a lagging effect. We haven’t caught up with the life expectancy increases from the 1950’s.
This would only be a problem if there was a global shortage of workers which there isn’t. For example, US holds thousands of able workers in concentration camps on its border right now. There are plenty of people who’d love to move to western countries to work right now. There isn’t really any actual lack of workers. And of course, there is no end of western articles predicting struggles in China. Yet, after many decades not a single one of these predictions has come true so far. I’m sure this will be the first though.
There is an upcoming worker shortage. A few places are already running into issues due to any number of reasons. Maybe life expectancy went up faster than the global average. Violence, poverty, or opportunity could cause young people to move elsewhere when possible. The rich world in general is currently is in the situation of having a low birth rate filled in by migration. The fools in the rich world who don’t appreciate what immigrants bring to the table are battling to deny themselves a rich resource.
But this won’t stay a thing forever. As the Global South, developing countries, whatever you want to call them start to catch up, two things will happen. One is they too will experience declining birth rates, as has consistently been the case as living standards increase. The other is that net migration will start to zero out. There won’t be camps full of people begging to be let in. It will be more like Russia is right now, with an aging population and few young people. I’m not picking on Russia, they just have the demographics of a shrinking young population and and a growing old population.
The solution to aging global population is to allocate labour and resources in a way that reduces the need for necessary labour. Automation and efficiency have been on the rise since the industrial revolution, and yet none of that has translated into reduction of the amount of work people are expected to do. The idea that people living longer is the problem here is the height of absurdity. The problem is with the fact that labour and resources aren’t allocated in a sane way.