The 21st Century Crisis Nobody Talks About: Demographic Ageing

Humanity is getting older. But while the old outnumbering the young is one of the supreme achievements of our species, it comes with major challenges. How do we meet rising care needs at the moment the working age population shrinks? Does demographic ageing mean low growth and high deficits are here to stay?

Aaron Bastani on a crisis set to re-define societies around the world which, for the 21st century at least, is every bit as disruptive as climate change.

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[r-pupz]

As a doctor I am so grateful you are talking about this. I feel like no one ever wants to think about it or meaningfully engage with what it means for society here and across the globe, and it's honestly terrifying.

[malicant]

Having watched my recently deceased grand-father linger in a nursing home for the last five years in near constant pain whilst tolerating the humiliating inability to preform even basic tasks, I can only say that I have no desire whatsoever to live to such an age. I would rather live to 50 and use those years well than continue to 90+ and spend my last few decades as a wreck.

[bramsrockhopper]

Here’s an idea: give people a choice of when they want to die. Allow them to make that choice to go when they are ready to.

No, I’m not talking about getting rid of old or disabled people. I’m talking about a right to the choice of when to die.

I promise you that there are many old people who would far rather die peacefully and with dignity at a certain point in their old age, than spend another few years needing a lot of medical care, many of them infirm, in pain and alone.

Many old people live full and happy lives and will want to live for a very long time. Good on them. But for those who do not want to just exist (because illness prevents them living a full life), then giving them a choice is actually a kindness. The same kindness we give to a loved animal because it is kinder than forcing them to suffer.

Give people a choice. I’d like a choice. It wouldn’t make me want to live for less time, but it would give me a reassurance that would remove the fear of a horrible lingering death in old age.

It would ease healthcare needs as a side benefit. All this extending of age is great when it is a *good* life. But it is not positive when that old age becomes a curse. Which it really does for some.

Just my opinion.

[moleman]

We could always focus on preventative medicine so that older people don’t need such huge amounts of healthcare and also live healthier lives...

[MrJonnyl]

We need to encourage more drinking and smoking again that helped prevent demographic aging

[xHaniffax]

We're living longer but not necessarily experiencing a better quality of life. Having children is not incentivised and the structure of society makes it difficult to raise children successfully. Lack of community to aid with child rearing, no financial stability or not reaching it until much older when less fertile. Generally women are spending a longer time in education and have to reconcile having children younger when at optimal fertility having fewer resources against waiting till marriage/financial stability/career progression by which time fertility has declined and pregnancy becomes high risk or just not feasible. Also, our environment (food) is lower in quality - combined with less than ideal circumstances and the pressures of modern day living increases the likelihood of miscarriage which is quite common. It's the people in the lower middle bracket affected most and not having as many children.

[menguardingtheirownwallets]

Remember what going to university was like: You had a small room at your Dorm, and you had a 'food plan', where you would go to the cafeteria to eat pre-made food, twice a day (lunch and dinner). The food was cheap and really good. The room was cramped, but it was close to everything and it gave you the basics of what you needed. That is what the elderly will need, but instead of a dormatory at a university, it will be a dorm beside a hospital.

[Deedee-eesg]

If you're from a poor background and ill your life expectancy is about 20years less!
Nearly all my female friends have died under the age of 60!!!

[mollytherealdeal]

I remember watching another video discussing a related topic: demographic winter. An important reason for the skyrocketing rise in the elderly population is because so many people do not want to have children. My Mom started having the four of us in her early 20s. My sister had her two children in her late 30s. One of my brothers had his two in his thirties, but my other brother and I will probably never have any children. By the 22nd century, the world population will be older and smaller. There will be fewer consumers to create more CO2 pollution, but there will be fewer scientists to create solutions to global warming. Perhaps better medicine will be able to reverse aging so people will be healthier and work decades longer. This is an important issue, but I prefer to feel hope instead of despair.

[Patrick-jjnh]

Really done your research on this one, great work.

[sonicwingnut]

You mention climate change as almost an entirely seperate issue but declining populations are basically required to tackle climate change.

[Iggsy]

There is a bit of a myth of perpetual growth isnt there

[mariusbleek]

It's almost as if the idea of perpetual economic growth is unsustainable....

[Hightorian]

Well... better usher in the automation apocalypse and hope we follow a socialist model and achieve post scarcity, and not a capatalist model and enjoy massive unemployment and an empowered oligarchy.

[ghostfires]

Add in the fact that a bigger and bigger chunk of old people in the UK and elsewhere will not own their homes as they enter retirement age. They will not even have the option (as proposed by the Tories in 2017) of selling their home to pay for elderly care.

[SR-fwyy]

Deranged propagandists want us all to compete for future proof tech careers to avoid being thrown on scrapheap: no need - just become a carer for elderly people. Far more meaningful and useful contribution.

[keycuz]

Let the robots take the jobs like they were designed, they can pay for all our needs. All that leaves us to do is social care, creativity and a few people to check the machines are working correctly.

[heliotropezzz]

This has to be a temporary stage in reducing the population. The population has expanded from around 2bn to7 billion in my lifetime. If we are reducing the birth rate which is necessary to stop the exponential expansion of the population, there will be a stage when the population ages more before it reduces. The size and expansion of the human population is putting pressure on the environment in terms of global warming, loss of forests, loss of animal habitat and pollution. I'm not sure anyone with severe health issues would want to live beyond 100, say, if you asked them and healthcare is already restricted for the elderly ill, with some not being considered fit enough or able to benefit sufficiently from operations and being denied them. I don't see average lifespans increasing much more. In fact it's going down now in the UK since there have been periods of austerity, and Covid

[matt]

It now feels like a lot of people are talking about this, and I think I speak for a lot of the people in the comments when I say that I'm super happy about it. This is the biggest problem of our lifetimes.

[anmolpatel]

A big chunk of population being old people will also lead to stagnation in technological and societal progress as old people resist change heavily