[mapt]

That is the situation right now.

It's not necessarily going to be the situation forever.

Every demographic crisis involving low birthrates is an immigration melting pot waiting for the population to get desperate enough to change policies.

[sangnoir]

> Every demographic crisis involving low birthrates is an immigration melting pot waiting for the population to get desperate enough to change policies.

Unless people accept the reality that perpetual growth is impossible, and that the economy will shrink as the population does. The UK austerity years provides a decent example of such a "managed decline", albeit with more immigrants, but that's not assured when the next conservative government comes to power.

[thfuran]

Changing policy to admit more immigrants is easy. Changing culture is hard.

[pixl97]

Depends how long they wait. Unless something changes in the next decade areas producing excess population are going to be in demand and they may find it difficult to attract people quickly enough.

[red-iron-pine]

maybe in the west, but asia is pretty racist, and the japanese have resisted until now pretty well. we'll have AI before they'll capitulate for any real migration

[mapt]

"Being pretty racist" is a preference.

One also might have a preference, entering the workforce, to pay less than 80% income tax into retirement & pension schemes, to support three grandparents who are retired and one great-grandparent who is retired.

The ratios for pension schemes, which some criticize as "ponzi schemes", get extremely bleak extremely fast if every generation is half the size. There is an analogous math problem associated with the national economy, with real estate pricing, with everything.

Which preference do you think is going to prevail?

We have pinned our future hopes on population growth, and we are capable of surviving at population stasis, but rapid population decline from the bottom of the population pyramid demands either fully automated luxury communism (the end of the private sector economy as we know it), or replacing retirement and old age with icebergs to fix the top of the population pyramid.