WORLD IS GETTING OLD — LITERALLY
China, Japan and other countries are seeing their populations age.
The U.S. is also heading in that direction.
How and why is this happening? People are getting old and dying, but fewer young people are having children to make up for it.
There are all kinds of blame for this to go around. China, for example, once had a one-child policy to control overpopulation, as many of its baby girls were sent elsewhere for adoption.
That policy apparently is now backfiring on the Chinese.
In the U.S. and other developed countries, more young people are putting off having children, or even getting married.
The largest percentage of college students in the U.S. is women, implying that women suddenly are more interested in establishing careers than motherhood.
There are reasons for this. First, many marriages do not last, and women do not want to be left with no way to make a living if a marriage fails.
Second, if a marriage survives, or, even, thrives, two incomes are needed to build a decent life.
Even with two incomes, young people are paying a lot more for necessities than their parents or grandparents did.
Housing, no matter where it is, is in short supply and is expensive. Food costs a lot more than it once did. Consider how the price of eggs affected the last presidential election.
So, being a young person in his or her 20s just beginning adulthood is not necessarily an enviable place. These circumstances have older people celebrating that they are old.
The biggest family expense may be children. They need to be fed, clothed, kept healthy and educated. Even in countries in which the government helps considerably with those expenses, it’s still difficult for young people to have and support families.
In countries in which the government declines to provide sufficient help to families, the challenge is much more difficult.
When both parents work, children need to be cared for. Such childcare often goes unsubsidized, so the parents decide whether one of their jobs is worth that expense. If the answer is no, they are likely to put off having children or quit a job and suffer financially.
Longing for past eras, in which partners played specific family roles, will not bring back those old days.
In short, countries are aging because it is difficult to be young today. If governments want their demographics to improve, they must take action to help young families. It’s great to give young people the freedom to create their own lives, but, today, more often than not, they can’t do it without help.
Moms and dads are finding their financial ties to their children last well into adulthood. This may prevent some from living out their elder years the way they would like.
When mom and dad are gone, their children may miss that support.
So, countries will continue to age. They will continue to struggle finding young workers. They’ll continue to see many family units with only one or two people, and no or few children.
If it’s seen as a problem now, time will only make it worse unless some intervention occurs.
Trying to bring back life from decades past is not a solution. Governments will have to adjust policies to make and grow young families.
If they don’t, the old will continue to age and the young will continue to struggle.
Peter