If jobs are “lost” because robots are doing more work, why is it a problem that the population is aging and there are fewer in “working age”? Shouldn’t the two effects sort of cancel each other out?
In: 13038
Should? Absolutely!
In fact, the dream since a century or two ago has been that increases in productivity through mechanisation, then automation, then informational improvements will allow people to work less while society still had more. It’s true too! We produce vastly more per person than we ever have at any point in the past. As I expect has been pointed out countless times elsewhere in this thread though, the trouble is distributing that wealth in a ‘fair’ manner.
Still, the myth that a decreasing population or even just a decreasing working-age population ratio is an economic catastrophe is ridiculous. Japan is the usual posterchild for all the bad things that can happen and yet, their economic activity *per person* is clicking along just fine. Their GDP as a whole is growing less quickly than some countries with population growth but who cares? Less but happy people is not a bad thing.
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