Mark Steyn has a great piece in the corner, on his recurring theme of the aging population of the Western world (which does now include Japan and Korea, for all intents and purposes).

Japan’s population peaked in 2004 at about 127.8 million and is projected to fall to 89.9 million by 2055. The ratio of working-age to elderly Japanese fell from 8 to 1 in 1975 to 3.3 to 1 in 2005 and may shrivel to 1.3 to 1 in 2055. “In 2055, people will come to work when they have time off from long-term care,” said Kiyoaki Fujiwara, director of economic policy at the Japan Business Federation.

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The transformation of developed societies – either into old folks’ homes (like Japan) or semi-Islamized dystopias (like Amsterdam, Brussels, etc) – will lead, in fact, to emigration. A young German or Japanese circa 2040 will have no reason whatsoever to stay in his native land and have most of his income confiscated in a vain attempt to prop up an unsustainable geriatric welfare system. So many will leave. Where will they go? At one time the obvious answer would have been America – but Good King Barack seems determined to saddle us with the same unaffordable entitlements that have scuttled the rest of the west.

For much of the developed world, the ”credit crunch”, the debt burden, and the rest are not part of a cyclical economic downturn but the first manifestations of an existential crisis.

The Western world (and I define that as any country that has been become integrated into the Western Industrial/Human Rights regime – Europe, Australia, New Zealand, U.S.A, Canada, Korea, Japan) is poised on the edge of a demographic cliff.

The decline of working age populations in these nations will large scale ramifications in the last half of the 21st century.

The United States is, statistically, in the best overall shape to weather this storm (to switch my metaphor).  Massive immigration (both legal and illegal) have kept the United States population growth above replacement level (2.0), but at the cost of an increasingly separatist Latin American and Muslim immigrant population.  Likewise, what population growth is occurring in Europe is mostly immigrant based, though their trends far more to the Muslim groups.

There are ways to ensure the continuation of Western culture, and America is the example – EVERYONE in America is descended from Immigrants. But we have been the most successful nation since Rome in actually integrating other peoples into our nation, and transferring our values to them. 

If we want to see America – and it’s values and culture – continue, there are steps we can take:

-English Language Only in Education and Government:  A common language is vital to a single national identity.

-A return to the teaching of Western History, and American History, in the public schools.

-Supporting through changes to the tax codes, zone regulations, and other function, a return to the extended nuclear family.

These steps are the total solution, but they are a start.

The alternative is that those of us in our 40s are going to watch our nation, and our culture, slowly dissolve…

Tags: Population