Ahh but demographics are not that simple.

Families used to have more children in part because more would die in childhood or as young adults. No children are pretty much assured to become 70 years of age.

Also the problem with paying for social security is partly caused by the fact that the elderly don't drop dead around 65 or shortly after that. Now we are looking at having a significant pool of people between the ages of 65 and 90 relatively alot more than before. The surplus in demographics was caused by an increase in life expectancy and a delayed reaction in dropping birthrate because of cultural considerations. This skewed democraphics is now entering the 65-90 age en masse.

Also a little shrinking of the human population is not a bad idea. And the negative growth is only a few % now. Sure it will change things but personally I don't think that anybody has shown this change to be a bad one. We got to accept that societies and economics will change every now and then and that change is as natural as sunshine.

I also don't buy that we have to increase immigration to support our western lifestyles. Afterall I need food, work, housing, warmth and air. I don't really need glossy advertisement leaflets or billboards in the street for example. We can easily cast away a few area's of employment and use the labour enclosed in there to support the area's that need to continue. I'm stand fast in my beleive that western men has began to think 2 dimensional. Not 4 dimensionally. He had begun to think that the current society is what is needed to survive when it really is nothing more than a transitional stage toward and endless series of transitional stages. We have got to think more in terms of time and a 3rd dimension of space. We did think in the 3rd dimension of space when we had a surplus of labour in the 60's and after that. Afterall most people in Europe are now employed in the service sector which this sector being realy important to our survival and existance. Sure ensurreances deals are a central part in our society today but would it stop to exist tomorrow than we would easily survive. Afterall 65 % of the world population lives in societies WITHOUT this western sector of labour.

No, we as a species survive and thrived for millenia and are still here en masse. Ou numbers have both grown and collapsed drastically. China in 20th century anyone (and at other times); Bunbonic plague anyone. We are far more smart and flexible than western society would have us believe and as always we will adapt to the times and to a new society when it comes at our doors without to much effort.

>>I dont know if this is going to be good for sailing or not.

Well she sailed with me because she was what she is. If she were a pretty victorian lady then she would not have. So yes change was good from my perspective. The time now is good for it already. will this change in the future ? Maybe, maybe not. Probably a bit of both depending how far in the future you are going to look. The beginning of the midevil times was a major step back for our societies in the west; the spreading of the renaisance was a major step forward. These will continue to alternate eachother in the future.

Regards,

Wouter