It's good that we all prepare for this trend which has been ongoing all over the place for decades: wealth drops birthrates.
Recall that in the 1970s, it was assumed that growth rates would continue unabated - this is why the 70s had so much apocalypse pop media about overpop like Soylent Green etc. The green revolution that was going on at the time hadn't yet registered with demographers.
This apparently inexorable process of growth leading to lower birthrate means that mankind's impact on the planet has at least a partial limit (number of humans screwing the pooch will peak and recede, even if the impact per human may keep growing), so we can take some degree of consolation in that.
But that leaves the remaining question of how we deal with the fact that the number of economic participants peaks and then recedes (negative growth ain't a pretty process). We can look at recessions as a starting guide to this process, but it does still give one a shiver to envision what we'll have to master to navigate this process down to the projected population equilibrium.
It's all the above that explains the nods that countries like the U.S. get from economists: when there is a global trend of dropping birthrates which can impact econ growth, countries that specialize in immigration can buck that trend for a bit.
Recall that in the 1970s, it was assumed that growth rates would continue unabated - this is why the 70s had so much apocalypse pop media about overpop like Soylent Green etc. The green revolution that was going on at the time hadn't yet registered with demographers.
This apparently inexorable process of growth leading to lower birthrate means that mankind's impact on the planet has at least a partial limit (number of humans screwing the pooch will peak and recede, even if the impact per human may keep growing), so we can take some degree of consolation in that.
But that leaves the remaining question of how we deal with the fact that the number of economic participants peaks and then recedes (negative growth ain't a pretty process). We can look at recessions as a starting guide to this process, but it does still give one a shiver to envision what we'll have to master to navigate this process down to the projected population equilibrium.
It's all the above that explains the nods that countries like the U.S. get from economists: when there is a global trend of dropping birthrates which can impact econ growth, countries that specialize in immigration can buck that trend for a bit.