(1) Going Extinct: In the US and likely in all the developed countries, on average the number of children per woman is less than 2. Soooo, in those countries

(1) Going Extinct: In the US and likely in all the developed countries, on average the number of children per woman is less than 2. Soooo, in those countries we are going extinct. Or, the population is shrinking. Right, this simple fact is made more complicated by mass immigration. But, still, we have the lesson: In a developed country without lots of immigration, population is shrinking. Eventually the immigration will slow and then the population will start shrinking again. (2) Cities. The economies in developed countries are heavily about just their cities. (3) Land. The cities have a big problem: They are short on land and have no way to make more. So, house prices increase. Paying workers more will not create more land but will likely increase house prices. Currently, in large US cities, house prices, that is, owner occupied, single family shelter, are too high for doing well at family formation, e.g., wife a full-time mother. E.g., Dad got a Master's, got married, got a job teaching in high school, bought a house, and started a family. So, I guessed that I should get an education, get married, buy a house, start a family. So, I got a Ph.D. in applied math, got good at computing, got married, was never able to get the down payment or qualify for a mortgage, buy a house, or start a family. Due to the pressures, visiting at her family farm, my wife, brilliant, astoundingly hard worker, PBK, Summa Cum Laude, Ph.D., killed herself. So, she never had any children, and neither have I. I'm still hoping to be able to buy a house but so far still never have. So, in the case of my wife and I, due to the high costs of a house, we didn't have any children and contributed to population shrinking. (4) More Land. Away from the larger cities, the US has lots of land, without buildings, not very good for farming, not very expensive. This cheap land has not solved the problem of houses being too expensive for family formation because (a) the jobs are in the cities and (b) that cheap land is too far from such a job to commute from a house on the cheap land. E.g., trying to make money enough for family formation, I was working at FedEx. My wife was still in our apartment in Maryland working on her Ph.D. With some computing and applied math, twice I'd saved the company from going out of business. A crucial investor on the BoD told me "Just keep doing what you are doing until someone tells you to stop." Looking back, I was in effect reporting to the BoD and the CEO. So, in the work, I was doing very well. My official management kept trying to fire me (such is illustrated well in the movie Godzilla). And the promised stock was 18 months late. I had mostly been working in Memphis -- my office was next to the CEO's (who put up with my late night violin practice of the Bach Chaconne). As it was, I didn't see a reasonably feasible path from the FedEx job to family formation. So, maybe I needed more education and applied to graduate school. I was accepted at Princeton, Brown, Cornell, and a fourth, and decided to go to the fourth for an applied math Ph.D. I submitted my letter of resignation from FedEx. On my last day, the CEO called me to his office and said: "You know, if you stay, you are in line for $500,000 of FedEx stock?" No, I didn't "know" that. The first time I'd saved FedEx was with some software I wrote from my apartment in Maryland -- the output from the software resolved a crucial issue for the BoD -- that's why in effect partly I was reporting to the BoD. Some days before my resignation I'd outlined a project that promised to save FedEx $millions a year in operating costs, and the CEO had written a memo making that MY project (implicitly reporting only to the CEO), and I planned to do the work also from my apartment in Maryland. But there on the last day, the CEO said I'd have to work in Memphis. Since the promised stock was already 18 months late and since the $500,000 was not written down or solid, I didn't trust the promise of the $500,000. And without FedEx stock, I didn't see a reasonably feasible path to family formation working at FedEx. For more, my best computing, a consultant I wanted to use, my apartment and wife were all in Maryland. I'd proven I could do good work, save the company, working in Maryland. So, since the CEO said I'd have to work in Memphis, I left FedEx and got the Ph.D. (5) New Solution: (a) Still have a job in a big city. (b) Have a house, nice yard, maybe a small lake or a stream with a walking bridge over the stream, own water well, septic tank, and drain field, use wood for some of the winter heat. (c) Work from home and interact with the job via the Internet. (d) Occasionally drive into the office in the city but skip this on snow days! (6) Population Growth. With this solution, we can do well with family formation, and the population can grow again.