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I completely (and unfortunately) agree. This population pattern manifests in so many countries. The United States would be in this situation if not for our immi

I completely (and unfortunately) agree. This population pattern manifests in so many countries. The United States would be in this situation if not for our immigration inflow. South Korea actually has an even lower birthrate than Japan. China has a smaller population base in its youth vs its middle aged segment as a result of their one child policy [1]. I wonder... will all developed nations engage in a war for productive immigrants in order to prevent a population pyramid based collapse of their economies? [1] http://www.indexmundi.com/graphs/population-pyramids/china-population-pyramid-2014.gif http://www.indexmundi.com/graphs/population-pyramids/china-p...

TeMPOraL 11y ago
Count Europe out of it for now. If I'm to believe the things I see and read all the time, most of the EU population is rapidly turning against immigration. It's a huge issue on the continent now, and it causes tensions between people and local governments - the latter are being painted as giving out free aid to immigrants while not being able to care for their own people. Population pyramid is a distant concern, when the commonly held fears are that a) immigrants are trying to "steal our jobs", and b) the whole Europe will get slowly converted to Islam if we keep letting them in.
- hkmurakami 11y ago
  The perception of scarcity of wealth (for lack of a better term) and things being zero sum between nationals and immigrants is truly regrettable. And SV is not immune to it, considering engineers' general opposition to increasing H1B quotas.
- 7952 11y ago
  It seems to me that the labour market issues we face would exist regardless of how many immigrants are let in. In the long term jobs are at risk from automation. We have fewer middle income people who can afford or are willing to pay high income tax rates.
  - TeMPOraL 11y ago
    True - but machines tend to sneak in unnoticed, while immigrants, and for us especially Muslim immigrant, are obvious boogeymen. They are human, they are there on TV and newspapers, you can point your finger at them and say "it's their fault!". It's yet another topic that lets public avoid having a discussion about real, coming issues.
sien 11y ago
The places where the immigrants are coming from are getting richer and their birth rates are dropping so there won't be enough immigrants to grow developed nations' populations. People will just have to learn to run countries with a stable population.
- kbutler 11y ago
  What suggests a stable population to you? Developed countries are all dropping below replacement fertility rate, sustained only by immigration and the higher fertility rate associated with recent immigrants. I haven't seen any evidence for a stable point of population - it looks like it will grow, until it begins to decline in the not-too-distant future. Then does it ever stop declining? Does it stop declining at a point we can sustain a technological society, much less technological progress? That's my vote for resolution of the Fermi paradox.
  - JoeAltmaier 11y ago
    I blame young women, who don't want to get married and don't want to have children. Sigh. It may be that western culture will collapse on its own when it reaches a certain point.

TeMPOraL 11y ago

Count Europe out of it for now. If I'm to believe the things I see and read all the time, most of the EU population is rapidly turning against immigration. It's a huge issue on the continent now, and it causes tensions between people and local governments - the latter are being painted as giving out free aid to immigrants while not being able to care for their own people. Population pyramid is a distant concern, when the commonly held fears are that a) immigrants are trying to "steal our jobs", and b) the whole Europe will get slowly converted to Islam if we keep letting them in.

hkmurakami 11y ago
The perception of scarcity of wealth (for lack of a better term) and things being zero sum between nationals and immigrants is truly regrettable. And SV is not immune to it, considering engineers' general opposition to increasing H1B quotas.
7952 11y ago
It seems to me that the labour market issues we face would exist regardless of how many immigrants are let in. In the long term jobs are at risk from automation. We have fewer middle income people who can afford or are willing to pay high income tax rates.
- TeMPOraL 11y ago
  True - but machines tend to sneak in unnoticed, while immigrants, and for us especially Muslim immigrant, are obvious boogeymen. They are human, they are there on TV and newspapers, you can point your finger at them and say "it's their fault!". It's yet another topic that lets public avoid having a discussion about real, coming issues.

sien 11y ago

The places where the immigrants are coming from are getting richer and their birth rates are dropping so there won't be enough immigrants to grow developed nations' populations. People will just have to learn to run countries with a stable population.

kbutler 11y ago
What suggests a stable population to you? Developed countries are all dropping below replacement fertility rate, sustained only by immigration and the higher fertility rate associated with recent immigrants. I haven't seen any evidence for a stable point of population - it looks like it will grow, until it begins to decline in the not-too-distant future. Then does it ever stop declining? Does it stop declining at a point we can sustain a technological society, much less technological progress? That's my vote for resolution of the Fermi paradox.
- JoeAltmaier 11y ago
  I blame young women, who don't want to get married and don't want to have children. Sigh. It may be that western culture will collapse on its own when it reaches a certain point.