By: Paul

Paul
Sat, 23 Nov 2024 19:27:24 +0000

Anxieties around population growth can also fuel the culture wars. Religious communities are valorised for having more children, probably because faith and duty to God provides extra existential meaning and justification for bringing children into the world. This is compared to secular liberal communities that prioritise the freedom and happiness of the individual and so are more inclined to see children as a burden. Needless to say none of this is relevant to whether an economy can support growing numbers of pensioners.

On that note the current productivity growth rate of 0.5 % needs to double to 1.0 % just to maintain living standards and the low GDP growth rates of the last decade. Productivity growth of 1.5% is needed to actually raise living standards for the young and old alike. We are clearly along way off from that and a violent correction of a stagnating economy and a serious destruction of capital is needed for that to happen.