The tipping point: what happens when deaths outnumber births? - Guardian
An article in The Guardian yesterday notices the patterns we discuss on this blog and asks how society might adapt to an aging, shrinking population.
In Japan, there are now companies that specialise in cleaning the apartments of elderly people who have died alone and gone undiscovered for weeks or months, while adult incontinence pads have outstripped nappy sales for more than a decade. In Italy, depopulating villages are selling homes for β¬1 to attract new residents and keep services running. In the UK, falling pupil numbers are already closing schools and classrooms in parts of London.
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Rather than trying to βfixβ falling birthrates, policymakers should prepare for an older population β from rethinking how old age support is funded, to enabling people to remain in work for longer. βSimply telling people to have more babies is unlikely to work,β said Kuang.
These changes may need to be far-reaching. As Harper, the author of the forthcoming book Ageing Societies: Risk and Resilience, puts it: βThe main challenge is that 20th-century labour markets, pension systems, family norms, healthcare institutions and long-term care arrangements were built under demographic conditions that no longer prevail.β
Adapting to longer lives will therefore require rethinking how people work, retire and are supported in later life. βThe traditional linear life course β education, continuous employment, abrupt retirement β is increasingly obsolete,β said Harper.
Instead, longer lives may involve more flexible patterns of work, retraining and phased retirement, alongside efforts to tackle ageism and support lifelong learning, as well as redesigning homes, transport and public spaces to support independence and connection in later life.
Are these suggestions politically viable? We'll see.
Looking forward to the upcoming book.