[dzdt]

The major demographic story of the century will be peak population. For the first time in the history of civilisation population will fall year after year instead of growing. All sorts of economic things that people take for granted will be questioned. Its much harder to fund pay-as-you-go retirement programs if the workforce size is decreasing. How much of GDP growth is dependent on population growth? You have to expect a decrease in average investment returns when populations shrink. Etc. Etc.