Comment Re:A lot of SOs (Score 4, Insightful) 133
1) This rate is not stabilizing anything - it's well below replacement rate, which means population is shrinking.
Not all jobs need to be replaced. If nobody makes trash, nobody is needed to take out the trash.
2) Short term a shrinking population means fewer workers to pay into government funds to help the elderly
The aging people payed government funds per capita at expected higher numbers. There is now fewer people. If the government doesn't have the money to support the fewer people then they are screwing the people.
3) Fewer elderly with children mean more reliance on the state in old age.
Fewer means less. Fewer people need less assistance.
4) Fewer people mean shops have fewer customers, demand for housing drops, construction starts waning, economy goes down.
Economy is related to population, "per capita". You can't have a down economy if it is reduced at the rate of population decline.
5) Long term, what happens when a country cannot sustain a population? Eventually it becomes a totally different nation as others will eventually take it over. I guess if you don't care about the preservation of Japanese culture that's not a problem.
Their population isn't shrinking towards extinction.