1. Europe's Baby Bust.
- Author
-
McDougall, Rosamund
- Subjects
- *
OVERPOPULATION , *LABOR supply , *IMMIGRANTS , *BIRTH rate , *PENSIONS - Abstract
A year or so ago, economic analysts were frantic about Europe's "baby bust," an idea that appears to have travelled across the Atlantic from the U.S. Analysts advised that they must "breed for Europe" or import millions of immigrants to forestall economic collapse due to rising pension obligations and a shrinking workforce. These proposals are now recognized as politically unacceptable. Moreover, they provide no solutions. Falling birth rates and aging populations are nothing new to Europe — life expectancies have doubled in less than two hundred years and birth rates have been falling for more than a century.
- Published
- 2004