You're right, that is a good point. It shouldn't be surprising in a biological context.

No one should be alarmed that birth rates in the west are what they are

But I've got to disagree here. There's plenty of reason to be alarmed from a fiscal perspective. They've been pretending growth is infinite and kicking the can down the road. Organized the economy and social support structures as Ponzi schemes. They should be alarmed that birth rates are failing because the existing architecture is ass-backwards. What the US should've done is treat the Boomers as a rare event that would have be managed as an exception instead of treating it as a new status quo.

Until they can fix that, the lower birth rates are an issue. The question is which issue is going to force the other and unfortunately, history suggests they will choose "base of population pyramid not wide enough -> infinity immigration."

And that likely reaction is why it alarms me.

You're right, that is a good point. It shouldn't be surprising in a biological context.

No one should be alarmed that birth rates in the west are what they are

But I've got to disagree here. There's plenty of reason to be alarmed from a fiscal perspective. They've been pretending growth is infinite and kicking the can down the road. Organized the economy and social support structures as Ponzi schemes. They should be alarmed that birth rates are failing because the existing architecture is ass-backwards. What the US should've done is treat the Boomers as a rare event that would have be accounted for instead of treating it as a new status quo.

Until they can fix that, the lower birth rates are an issue. The question is which issue is going to force the other and unfortunately, history suggests they will choose "base of population pyramid not wide enough -> infinity immigration."

And that likely reaction is why it alarms me.

You're right, that is a good point. It shouldn't be surprising.

No one should be alarmed that birth rates in the west are what they are

But I've got to disagree here. The reason they're alarmed is because their brains, to use the corporate analogy, are stuck thinking every country needs to be a Growth Country. In reality, there's nothing wrong with being a Value Country. Stable population, sustainable reinvestment, and but not burning money. In fact it's the same fucking mistake the corporate world makes. Growth mode is shoveling money into the furnace and operating at a loss so you can grow to the point where you have the resources to become self-sustanining. At that point, the company is supposed to became self-sustaining.

But everyone wants to pretend the Growth phase lasts forever, kicks the can down the road and organizes financial support structures as Ponzi schemes. They should be alarmed that birth rates are failing because the existing architecture is ass-backwards. What the US should've done is treat the Boomers as a rare event that would have be accounted for instead of treating it as a new status quo.

Until they can fix that, the lower birth rates are an issue. The question is which issue is going to force the other and unfortunately, history suggests they will choose "base of population pyramid not wide enough -> infinity immigration." And that likely reaction is why the rest of us should be alarmed.