Demographics: it is not only a 'developed' problem

When explaining why we all should become better in networking through technologies, but also just in real life, I often use the example the our current demographic situation.

I argue that businesses are encountering the effects of our current demographic situation. China and India both have many people who will soon retire, but they also have many young people who can take over vacant jobs. Europe and North America also have many people who will soon retire, but they do not have a new workforce to fill in the empty spaces. This means that businesses should find ways to work with a limited workforce; a workforce that is no longer constrained to the location of the business.

Phillip Longman also summarize some critical facts about this population bomb the world is facing. He argues that:

1. There is a 50 percent chance that the population will be falling by 2070, according to a recent study published in Nature. By 2150, according to one U.N. projection, the global population could be half what it is today.
2. Those who predict a coming Asian Century have not come to terms with the region's approaching era of hyper-aging. Japan, whose *lost decade* began just as its labor force started to shrink in the late 1980s, now appears to be not a exception, but a vanguard of Asian demographics. South Korea and Taiwan, with some of the lowest birth rates of any major country, will be losing population within 15 years. Singapore's government is so worried about its birth dearth that it not only offers new mothers a "baby bonus" of up to about $ 3,000 ....

Especially point 2 shows a different view of what worldmapper.org is showing with its data from 2002 (which I used for my article). Data should be seen through the eyes of intellectual reasoning, like the article written by Philip Longman. Then we are really generating new knowledge.