Okay, take a town 60 years ago. Lots of people, say, o driving cars with tires that last only 15,000 miles, o driving cars with engines that last

Okay, take a town 60 years ago. Lots of people, say, o driving cars with tires that last only 15,000 miles, o driving cars with engines that last only 80,000 miles (due to poor lubrication due to water and gasoline in the oil due to inaccurate fuel mixture and ignition), o typing on typewriters with carbon paper, o doing business communications with printing and/or typing on paper sent by USPS, o an office telephone switchboard manned by employees. Now enter new technology, and each of these activities uses some automation, is much cheaper, and puts the old employees out of work. So, have lots of unemployed people with little or no money who want to make money and consume but cannot get jobs. Why not jobs? For one, the total number of jobs shrank, and as in musical chairs some people don't get one. For another, to create more jobs need some ideas for new products/services, some capital to get the businesses going, and some qualified employees. The unemployed people will need some new training, that is, investments in 'human capital'. As we know from depressions, can have a shortage of capital, lots of people not consuming who want to work but no jobs for them to do. Then if have a war, suddenly can have three jobs for everyone who can work at all. There is also an effect of the ratios of people to land and other natural resources. With high density population, the prices of such resources increase. Maybe when the population of Japan, Finland, France, Germany, Russia, the US, etc. shrink, the new ratio will make it easier for a couple to form a family. E.g., if the population is low enough that a young couple can easily buy 200 acres of good farm land, then there will be some new alternatives for that couple to form a family. Now at maybe $5000 an acre, let's, see, 200 acres would be $1 million. She's 18; he's 22; and where are they going to get $1 million or even a down payment plus farm equipment and materials for a house? Presumably in time startups will find new products and services that people want and that can make use of the unemployed. But, in that town when automation put the typists out of work, the jobs of some people were not affected and, first cut, by having the company spend much less on typing, could pay their remaining employees more. So, some people are doing well. And in Japan, the article seems to suggest that real estate prices are so high that no one can afford them! No! Instead, real estate prices are so high just because enough people actually can afford them. So, some people are doing well, and maybe they, or their lucky heirs, are forming traditional families.