ShenMolo
Terracotta Army
Posts: 480
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Teleku's excellent description of the demographic challenges faced in Japan also can be applied to Western Europe and Russia.
Russia's population is steadily declining, with the birth rate well below the replacement rate and life expectancy actually shrinking.
The countries of Western Europe are also producing children below the replacement rate. There are differences among population groups within each country. The native populations have extremely low birthrates, while the immigrant populations have higher birthrates.
Unfortunately, while European countries are not opposed to importing foreign labor, they do a poor job of assimilating them into western liberal societies, and instead tend to ghettoize their largely Muslim, brown, undereducated immigrants. This leads to discontent, alienation, and ultimately revolt, as can be witnessed in the ongoing civil unrest in the French suburbs.
European populations are growing much older, and producing fewer workers. European voters continue to demand more and costlier social services, placing greater demands on the shrinking population of tax paying workers. Ultimately Europe must either import more labor (and learn to successfully assimilate them, or become more like them), have (many, many) more babies (and do so immediately), or give up social services.
In some ways, Europe's situation resembles a reversal of the days of their colonial empires. Immigrants to European countries have historically originated in their old overseas territories. For hundreds of years, vigorous, growing, and dynamic European populations spread around the world colonizing and subjugating less developed regions and societies. Now the descendants of those conquered peoples are immigrating Europe and slowly but inexorably colonizing the dying European nations one baby at a time.
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