How Civilizations Die: (And Why Iran is Dying Too)

[rubyjackass]

But Ruby, purely socioeconomically, a child is an investment with guaranteed returns of 30+ productive years, while an elder is a responsibility with no productive years remaining. One is an asset, the other a liability. For a society to progress economically, it should always have more assets than liabilities.

Think about how many unemployed youth we have. And for those who are employed, what is the minimum wage? For a young man to be productive, he should have a job first. Otherwise they just add to the list of squatters or may be even criminals. Your investment logic is what is used by families traditionally for having more kids. Remember this? 'More kids more hands'.

But there is a problem in our family planning education. Only the educated ones really follow family planning whereas the less privileged still give birth at the same rate, and stay at the same level. There was some opinion article in dawn regarding the lack of penetration of family planning in backward communities and how it skews our society.

 

[doppelganger]

Think about how many unemployed youth we have. And for those who are employed, what is the minimum wage? For a young man to be productive, he should have a job first. Otherwise they just add to the list of squatters or may be even criminals. Your investment logic is what is used by families traditionally for having more kids. Remember this? 'More kids more hands'.

But there is a problem in our family planning education. Only the educated ones really follow family planning whereas the less privileged still give birth at the same rate, and stay at the same level. There was some opinion article in dawn regarding the lack of penetration of family planning in backward communities and how it skews our society.

The problem is that like in China in India too there is an exodus of people from rural areas to urban pockets for better opportunities. The cities cannot sustain this inflow indefinitely. Infrastructure and utilities and law & order and everything else simply comes to the point of collapse.

It is the job of the government to provide enough jobs, with at least minimal wage. Then still if there are laggards and squatters, then it is their fault and nothing can be done about them short of forcefully making them work. All these rozgaar yojnas and abhiyans are steps in that direction.

A huge country with a huge population has huge needs. We have a long way to go to develop. A lot of hard work needs to be done to get there. Build roads and dams and bridges and cities and towns. Hands are going to do that, for we are nowhere close to be an advance automated society.

There is enough work for the next 20-30 years , i.e. almost the entire working life of one generation. It is the job of the government to channel the system and provide the raw materials and tools. The hands are already there.

Disadvantaged sections do not only "breed like rats" (highly offensive statement by @Wright) because they need more hands. Their access to healthcare of the most primary nature is such that the maternal and child mortality figures translate to the fact that a large proportion of those hands die before they are big enough to find legs to stand on.

 

[BeyondHeretic]

I think the US will continue to lead into the 21st century , but somewhere along the way some people might get tired of this , hopefully