by Denyse O’Leary
Glib answers will not conjure away the hard, cold fact that workers everywhere are getting older and older.
In a recent piece, I talked about how increasing longevity was affecting technologically advanced societies in ways that only occasionally come to the surface. Pope Benedict broke with tradition by resigning due to advanced age, for example, rather than dying in office. Popes of old didn’t usually live long enough to face the problem. Read more…
by Marcus Roberts
The challenge for Western countries in the short to medium term is that the number of workers that they have to support their economies (and social support networks) is declining or set to decline. We’ve banged on about this challenge here at Demography is Destiny for a while now. According to a report in the Economist, not only will an aging population eventually result in fewer workers, but as those workers age they will also be less productive. Read more…
by Patrick F. Fagan
Family, church, and school are the three basic people-forming institutions, and they produce the best results when they cooperate.
Even if all the market reforms of the Washington think tanks, the Wall Street Journal, and Forbes Magazine were enacted, we’d still need to kiss the Great American Economy goodbye. Below the level of economic policy lies a society that is producing fewer people capable of hard work, especially married men with children. As the retreat from marriage continues apace, there are fewer and fewer of these men, resulting in a slowly, permanently decelerating economy. Read more…
by Carolyn Moynihan
In addition to family structure and economics, the World Family Map project is looking at family “processes” such as adult satisfaction with their family life, agreement or otherwise about household work, family discussions on social issues and family meals. It is also looking at family culture — attitudes towards single motherhood, working mothers, children’s need for a mother and a father, and trust within families.
On these measures the richest societies are not necessarily top performers. Read more…
February 26th, 2013
Betsy
by Michael Cook
What is the proper role of money and markets in a democratic society? How can we protect the priceless goods in moral and civic life from being bought and sold?
Does everything have a price? Sometimes you might think so. Read more…
February 21st, 2013
Betsy
by Carolyn Moynihan
South Korea has a reputation for economic dynamism and top-notch women golfers, but there is at least one thing it is not doing very well these days: looking after its elderly citizens. Asian family values built on Confucianism are breaking down under the pressures of a highly competitive society focused on economic performance and personal success. Read more…
by SBrinkmann
A new government report reveals that U.S. births fell in 2011 for the fourth straight year, although the decline was just one percent, less than the two to three percent drop seen in recent years. Read more…
by Carolyn Moynihan
While looking at a new outbreak of Boomer-bashing in the US media — provoked by continuing economic woes and the election –I came across a columnist in the Atlantic magazine who gets what the basic problem is. “Demographics are economics,” says Derek Thompson. How true.
One way to think about the Great Recession is like a great pause button. Read more…
Respecting life “from womb to tomb” includes the long part in the middle. In this beautiful short video, Rev. Robert Sirico reminds us that free enterprise is the system best-suited to human flourishing.
by Ryan T. Anderson
February 2, 2012 http://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2012/02/4646
Neither liberal nor libertarian, a principled conservative way of helping the poor.
The loudest voices in our national debates about political economy tend to be libertarians and social welfare statists. To our detriment, most public policy discussions are filtered through these two lenses. At the same time, we tend to conflate the policy issues facing our nation as if they were one and the same. Read more…
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