[extropy-chat] social insecurity

[Dirk Bruere]

spike wrote:

>There's a debate in the U.S. about social security.  The
>introduction of birth control pills in 1960 caused a huge
>dip in fertility that threatens the future retirement
>system.  But it occurred to me that a whole lot of
>nations have a birth rate waaay lower than the U.S.
>does currently.  The Population references Bureau
>reports that Armenia, Czech Republic, Ukraine, Andorra, 
>Bulgaria, Georgia, Latvia, Macao, Russia, Slovenia, and
>Spain all have total fertility rates at or lower than 1.2,
>and much of Europe is only a little higher.  Seems 
>like these outfits would have a muuch greater problem 
>on their hands than the U.S.
>
>Are they talking much about this?  How are they proposing
>to deal with it?  Importing legions of young workers?  From
>where?  Africa?  Rural Afghanistan?
>
>
>  
>
To illustrate the magnitude of the 'problem'...
According to a UN study (no references I can recall) if Britain wanted 
to maintain its current demographics with respect to working population 
through 2050 we need to double our population size through immigration 
ie 60m to 120m

Of course, there are two other ways to view this.
The first is that a reducing population is *good*, especially for our 
descendents.
Second, I expect major advances in anti-ageing tech withi 30 yrs that 
will totally screw up all the projections.

-- 
Dirk

The Consensus:-
The political party for the new millenium
http://www.theconsensus.org



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