[Garth Tater]

You also missed the part where Right_Wing_Madman said:

"When the birth rate is 2.0 (two children per woman), one married couple supports two grandparents."

His number was for a married couple, not per person as you used in your calculations.

R_W_M may be a madman, but he does know his math - and the sad thing is that the math says the Europeans will soon be gone. Much of Asia is heading down that same road at an even faster rate.

[Paul R.]

"When the birth rate is 2.0 (two children per woman), one married couple supports two grandparents."

I was not contesting that at all -- "my" math confirms it.

The problem comes in at the lower birth rates, such as 0.5: RWM was off by a factor of 2 for a married couple. It (0.5) is still disastrous, of course.