One has to look at the other side of the coin as well. That's 40 M mouths that don't have to be fed, 40M bodies that don't need to be housed, or supplied with energy, and 20M houses that don't need to be built. And all the arable land under those 20M non-built houses that can still be used to grow food.
Expecting infinite growth in a finite world is a fool's game.
How do you suppose that scenario comes about? Are people just going to be put down when not in the workforce? No, there are not 40m mouths not being fed. There are 40m mouths still being fed, except they don't do the work anymore.
Are people just going to be put down when not in the workforce? <grin>
As people age, they tend to fall off the perch. They won't all die immediately, of course, and they won't be culled. It's just normal attrition.
The Boomer generation was a huge bump in the population mix. Was being the operative word. I haven't seen any recent figures, but I'd say that the 'bump' would be pretty much disappeared by now.
If China has lost 40M workers, that means those oldies weren't being replaced at the younger end. A lack of replacement at the younger end has the same practical effect as older people being 'put down' at the older end.
And anyway, 40 million in a population of 1400 million is only about 3%. The World as a whole needs drops to be in the order of 80 million a year just to remain static at around 8 billion, and far bigger drops to start decreasing towards sustainable levels.
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[ 3.3 ms ] story [ 19.2 ms ] threadExpecting infinite growth in a finite world is a fool's game.
As people age, they tend to fall off the perch. They won't all die immediately, of course, and they won't be culled. It's just normal attrition.
The Boomer generation was a huge bump in the population mix. Was being the operative word. I haven't seen any recent figures, but I'd say that the 'bump' would be pretty much disappeared by now.
If China has lost 40M workers, that means those oldies weren't being replaced at the younger end. A lack of replacement at the younger end has the same practical effect as older people being 'put down' at the older end.
And anyway, 40 million in a population of 1400 million is only about 3%. The World as a whole needs drops to be in the order of 80 million a year just to remain static at around 8 billion, and far bigger drops to start decreasing towards sustainable levels.