The Census Bureau estimates at least 27 large counties will have smaller populations in 2050 than today, including China, Russia, Germany, South Korea, and Japan. This is not good news. There are two ways to grow an economy: productivity growth, and population growth. Some of the world's largest economies will soon get no help from the latter.
To understand what an aging population does to an economy, it helps to know the story of Japan since the end of World War II.
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