There’s an article in the current issue of The Atlantic called “China’s Twilight Years,” by Howard French. Mr. French’s thesis is that China’s population policies (“one child”) have put it on the road to economic decline. He says:
...as China’s Baby Boomers reach retirement age, the country will transition from having a relatively youthful population, and an abundant workforce, to a population with far fewer people in their productive prime.
The numbers tell the story—China now has some 5 workers for each retiree, but this will change with astonishing rapidity. By 2040, he says, the ratio will be 1.6 to 1. They country is cutting 300,000 from its army, prob And China has no pension plan like Social Security, so either poor retirees starve or the country will have massive expenditures to start one.
Other developed nations face the same problem, but not, at least not now, the US. And the reason is quite pertinent to our election:
That the U.S. is not facing population shrinkage is due largely to immigration. America’s fertility rate, while higher than that of China and many European countries, is still below the threshold required to avoid shrinkage, about 2.1 children per woman. By keeping its doors relatively open to newcomers, America is able to replenish itself. If the country were instead to shut its doors, its population would plateau and its median age would climb more steeply. According to the Pew Research Center, immigrants and their children and grandchildren will account for 88 percent of U.S. population growth over the next 50 years.
So Donald Trump thinks China is responsible for all our economic woes, but he opposes immigration, which is the great advantage we have over China—our trump card, so to speak.
One more reason, among so many, to vote for whomever the Democrats nominate.