3 ms·

The government needs people working so they pay taxes that are used for government benefits, such as retirement

• tenebrisalietum 4y ago
  Less people = cheaper land = cheaper lots of other things, including housing, food, etc.
  • Tiktaalik 4y ago
    They already can't give away housing in areas of rural Japan that are emptying out. The value of land is socially created. When there's no one around, no economy, etc, it's basically worthless. Japan is rapidly approaching this point. You'll be able to get cheap land if you want to be a weird hermit, but everyone else is going to continue to flood to the cities, the only places where there will remain any sort of economy. Not really sure how or why food would get cheaper with less people. If anything the opposite as it's more expensive to make it locally with less workers available. Less people seems worse all around to me.
    • asdswe 4y ago
    • sdenton4 4y ago
      Empty land is wild land, and extremely valuable for the long term survival of human civilization.
    • throwntoday 4y ago
      As remote work oppurtunities increase and the younger generation begins to settle down, there will be a natural return to small towns on the outskirts where they can offer their families more for less. Japan does a good job of making their cities liveable for anyone, and commuting in/out is unparalleled. >Not really sure how or why food would get cheaper with less people. If anything the opposite as it's more expensive to make it locally with less workers available. Automation in agriculture continues to expand. And in my experience most Japanese tend to prefer locally made products despite the higher prices. This was most obvious when I saw the pile of australian steaks sitting next to a much smaller cut of domestic steak that were nearly sold out at the supermarket. Or consider that Seiko make identical watches domestically, and in SEA, but the "Made in Japan" models are only sold in Japan. There are still ~1MM babies born in Japan every year. They will be fine with a reduction in population. They don't seem keen on expanding immigration anyway, or a demographic shift, so I don't understand the desire to push mass immigration on every nation with a declining birth rate. They're not bothering anyone by wanting to keep Japan, Japanese.
      • fomine3 4y ago
        > small towns on the outskirts > commuting in/out is unparalleled. Choose either one.
• onlyrealcuzzo 4y ago
  Japan's public pension plan is not particularly generous, although it is pay-as-you-go, so less working people = a higher percentage of retirees, true.
• pcrh 4y ago
  Income taxes are one form of government revenue. Sales taxes, VAT, duties, etc, also raise income, and scale with consumption, not population. Also, many people have pensions that are based on their lifetime savings, investments, etc. Not all pensions are paid from current government revenues.
• vivekd 4y ago
  The necessity of this might look different in Asia where children are expected to care for their aging parents thus taking the burden off government pension and elderly care costs
  • tforcram 4y ago
    What children? The reason the population is declining is because they didn't have children, increasing the burden on the government. I've been to rural Japanese towns where it felt like there were no young people at all, only elderly, and the largest employers were related to elder care. I suppose one aspect that might reduce the burden on the government, is that all the savings of these elderly are not going to someone's inheritance, but instead to the elder care institutions.