Why we will be poorer

Asia Times Online ^ | 14 July 2011 | Spengler

[Palter]

No man is an island, especially in the markets. Our consumption basket includes the efforts of hundreds of millions of people around the world, and our right to consume depends on our ability to sell to hundreds of millions of people around the world. During the present century the number of adults in affluent and productive countries will shrink by about a third. All of us will be poorer.

There will be a third fewer people earnings profits for businesses, paying taxes to governments, buying homes or cars, or taking vacations. Starting around 2015 the adult population will start to decline at about 2% a year. Productivity in the industrial nations (output per worker) has grown at slightly more than 2% since 2000, according to The Conference Board, [1] so a 2% decline in working-age population suggests that output will remain more or less flat indefinitely in the developed countries.

[kabar]

And we will be 3 for a long time to come. We will add 130 million in the next 40 years giving us a population in 2050 of 440 million. And we have 12 to 20 million illegals here, not 10 to 12 million.

[tickmeister]

$700 ten years ago = $70 per year. You can spend $25,000 on a banjo believe it or not.

However, I will be reusing that line about plucking yourself.