As you may or may not know, I'm taking an Economics class this summer. Our professor sends us a couple of articles every week to read and discuss in class. I found this one very interesting so I'm going to share it with you all.
"Missing Children by Gary S. Becker" on the Wall Street Journal
To summarize, this article talks about the problem of the decline in birthrates and its effect on the world economy. The article states that every country needs to produce roughly 2.1 kids per family in order to sustain and grow the population. However, most countries now have fallen below 1 kid per family. What are the effects of a decline population?
1. More of the working class and more old people. With more people going into retirement and less people entering into the work force, the government will lose tax revenue while paying more social security for the retired.
2. Less young people in the labor force amounts to less innovation. Without innovation, there is no growth.
3. The rise in the older population will increase medical costs as well as other costs.
