Unshackled wrote:
The west almost runs like a Ponzi scheme. Perpetually needing larger populations to prop up the last. Its unsustainable.
I think that is inaccurate. The issue is that there was a 20 year period post-WW2 where there was a massive boost in population in the west. This has combined with a large increase in life expectancy to create a very unusual demographic phenomenon where instead of a demographic pyramid (most people young, relatively few people old) you have this massive bulge of baby boomers feeding through society.
We don't need "perpetually larger populations", we just need enough younger people to make the glut of elderly baby boomers manageable until they die out (in roughly 2050).
You are looking at the issue far too simplistically I think.
Edited by AzzaMarch: 26/11/2015 09:46:52 AM