Addressing the Demographic Crisis: Challenges and Solutions in the U.S.

Colleges are closing partly because of the admin float in the sheer cost of college, but also because of the demographic crisis. The U S. Has two main problems right now. Number one is an aging population. And number two is nobody’s having kids. The number of people over 65 has increased from 13% in 2011 to 17% in 2023. The fertility rate in the US has dropped to 1.8 children per woman, which is below the replacement level of 2.1. So why are people not having babies? Part of the problem is the cost of childcare. It’s increased 32% since 2019. But then on the other end, elder care is a really big cost, too. On average, it costs $10,000 a month. And so we have this aging population, and it doesn’t seem like we’re going to have a workforce that’s able to support that. Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid all require working age individuals. Immigration is one way to solve it. A large portion of the immigrants in the US are of working age. China and India, where a lot of population growth has happened, are experiencing slowing populations too. This is a worldwide problem. Automation might be the way to solve it also, but I feel like that might make the underlying problem even worse. And as the simplest solution is probably just addressing the cost of child care. It’s also a housing crisis problem. I think that we’d have to do to fix the demographic crisis. Is make it more affordable to have kids.